SimmedUp Magazine Issue 11 by SUPinmedia

Editors letter Sul Sul Simmers! I know you did not expect me to be here. I decided to give this a go and be the editor this time around and I have enjoyed it so much. This month’s issue, we celebrate all the amazing people in the LGBTQ+ community and showcase their work to all of you. I myself am not part of this community, but I do support it. We are all human no matter how you identify. The Sims Team also recently announced the release of the new Expansion Pack that will be releasing on the 22 of July and I am quite excited about it. I know it’s not what most of us were expecting, but I’m rather happy with it. At least we get some Alpacas. You can read more about the pack in our NonBob news section if you are not quite sure if you want to purchase it yet. In this issue you can read about our interview with The English Simmer (AKA Mollie), sharpening your design skills with tips from SimmerChase, Cooking with one of Granny Ruth’s first Guests, Making yourself some awesome CC and finding yourself again with The Mom Cave. Don’t forget to join in the fun by guessing who our mystery celebrity is in the Just For Fun section. I hope you all have fun during the Summer of Sims festival featuring Bebe Rexha and the other amazing artists the Sims have lined up for the festival. I am for sure attending it. I would love to see all of your pictures. Share them with us. Until next time when I see you as the Editor. For now, enjoy this issue, relax and have fun.

SulziSim

Image Credit: LaarStudio (Maria)

NONBOB NEWS All The Latest News & Updates

68 OFF TOPIC

14 TIPS & TRICKS

74 TITAN ARCHITECTS

Antoinette Muller & ChaseSimmer

24 MACHINIMALIFE

Project Highrise With SierraXMyst and The Queer Save Collab

Featuring Yehns - The voice of unsound mind

80 FANART

32 INTRODUCING

86 RETRO CORNER

JetSetSimmer

Sim City 4 & Sims 2 on PSP

36 COOKING SIMS STYLE

96 RHYSMOON

42 THE ENGLISH SIMMER

102 YOUR SIMS

56 CC Spotlight

110 BUILD A BETTER LIFE

62 CC How To Tutorial

116 SUP SHOP

Granny.R & Guest Chef Robin Talks Sims & Being part of the LGBTQ+ community

With Kawaii Foxita

with MaddyCatts

Adoculus

Chats with

Pug Owned Plays & Sims From The Community

Grief - A Tutorial Merch & Stuff

120 SIMSPIRATION

How to have a successful Sims 4 renovation

126 SIMTOGRAPHY

Pride Parade with Lea Morganna

132 MAKING A SIMMER Featuring CarissaSims

140 FACEBOOK SHOWCASE

With Lissy Builds

142 MOD REVIEW

PimpMySims LGBTQ Mod

146 SIMSCOPES

What Does June Hold For You?

150 JUST FOR FUN

Guess the cas with Yolimi

152 WHATS UP

Challenges & Competitions

162 MEET THE TEAM

164 IN THE COMMUNITY ADVERTISEMENTS

EA has announced their latest laundry list (which can be found below) the full write up from The Sims Team can be found directly on their website by visiting ea.com, but until you can be bothered to do yet another click here is a sneak peak of what’s being fixed within The Sims 4. ‘This is just a list of the “top” concerns. There are more topics that we saw reported by players that are not listed and being worked on. So, without further ado, here is a list of the top community concerns we’re currently investigating: Open staircase cause routing failures In-Season Plants revert to dirt piles CAS no longer shows what Sim is wearing in its columns Sim Profile not opening after Learning (Dis)Likes/LUIE occurring New (darker) hair swatches make Sims' teeth look black Several Hair Make Teeth Grey/Black Random Sim in apartment/house / Guest not leaving

The Summer of Sims has come to our simming community, with a wave of brilliance they came up with a plan to bring us more content , base game updates and a virtual block party amongst a few other things. But has this really been ‘The Summer of Sims’ or has it been more of a ‘Damp Squib?’. With the release of the (and this is how damp it really is, I just had to research to remember what they released first!) Courtyard Oasis Kit and as pretty as it is, it really was a big fail considering EA seem to be intent on bringing home the bacon at the moment(more on the money pit that is Sims mobile can be found on our blog at www.simmedup.co.uk). The introduction of kits was indeed exciting but the reality is, when the chips are down (global pandemic and all, loss of jobs, finances in the toilet the list goes on) The Sims find more ways to squeeze every last penny from their fans by introducing this tantalising tit bit and giving back….. Hoovers and lots of bugs (again).

Eyelashes change color to match hair color Teens age up/get generated with crow's feet Fabulously Filthy: Floor being dirty doesn't fulfill Thanks for all your patience and valuable help! Please continue telling us about any issues you’re experiencing on Answers HQ, we’ll continue to work on improving our transparency, and together we can make this game the best that it can be. Happy Simming!’

Onto the next ‘Surprise’ we are getting a game pack whoop whoop we all cried how exciting (forgetting we have just been ripped off with kits, I admit I am also blinded by The Sims lights, but are they dimming?) The wait is horrid, watching everyone discuss what they think is really must be, before the big night and the announcement of ‘The Dream Home Decorator Pack’ and it looks AMAZING for once the team really have outdone themselves. The content is gorgeous, the ability to create not just wardrobes and hanging spaces for the home, but this opened up new opportunities for The Sims Builders out there with retail possibilities and not forgetting the amazing creators like SatiSims Builds and Fantasims and what they

can build from even the smallest of objects, yes this is one of those packs that really does deliver for both sides of the playing fields. For the Sims Live players and Sims character creators the new Interior Designer career had everyone in a tizzy, being able to build AND live play at the same time REVOLUTIONARY.

course the community went nuts.

The Sims Creator content included unisex outfits from jumpsuits to dungarees and a utili Kilt (which by the way is sooo awesome) and the fact they have taken into account that BOTH sexes in the Sims (still no gender choices yet!) can wear all the outfits (considering this is a basic option in life whether targeted at females or male genders we can literally buy and wear what we want no matter who we are, catch up Sims!) and that is a step in the right direction, and we must all remember Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither has the Sims franchise.

Now Arnie has been working on a complete farming mod for The Sims 4 , This is something the Sims team were adamant they were not doing and when cries for ‘Give us a farming pack’ came from the community, we were told blatantly NO, and then this little spark of creativity shines in the distance as Arnie announces I CAN DO IT, and by god he did….. The Farmland Mod created by Arnie is astounding and brings to us the community something we have wanted in The Sims 4 for so long A REAL WORKING FARM with ANIMALS.

The Dream home decorator kit was a win for The Sims team and one they should be very proud of but yet again the BUGS seem to taint everything they do, do right! With reports of gigs ending early and not earning the pay, to clients just going missing it seems the Sims Team will always be forever plagued with bugs (isn’t it about time they tried and tested these on a larger scale, because something is seriously going wrong down the line when they still cannot repair bugs from yonks ago and then create new ones in new content). The Summer of Sims continues and the simming community seem happy to plod along with what they have and what is still to come, as usual the Sims Gurus start letting off their redacted posts, or hint messages across social media to entice the simming community to create a buzz (we all know the tricks) the speculation starts and the next rumour we have is FARMING IS COMING TO THE SIMS! Now we all know that the buzz for this pack was going to be big, they didn’t quite announce a farming pack but the hints led us all to believe it was that or Fairies and Werewolves and of

In the back ground though we were watching because an amazing simmer who goes by the name of TheSims_Plus on twitter and for those of us who know him just a little better we call him Arnie.

The trailer for Farmland can be found on Arnies account on YouTube and I dare say, IF you do go to watch it, make sure you have these things in preparation: 1) A hankie (that ending gets me every time) 2) Cover any drinks with a lid because the excitement will get those arms pointing to the ceiling whilst shouting YESSSSS (and we don’t want any burns) 3) Have the volume up high and RE-WATCH because you are going to want to watch this at least twice to take in just how much work has gone into the creation of this mod, so to Arnie I say WE SALUTE YOU and maybe you can teach the erm oh yeah Sims Team just what Sims really should be about when you deliver what the community actually asks for. But lets get back to that Sims announcement and yes it was not farming but a kind of farming pack, let me explain you see, we get cows, a little farming shopping cart stall thing, chickens and a fox….. So back to Arnie (no just joking) but seriously did The Sims team really just try to sneak in an announcement before Arnie because they

finally know they perform below par? Noooo I hear the more dedicated simmers out there, our beloved Sims Team wouldn’t do something like that (or would they? Food for thought). The Cottage living expansion pack does deliver a lot of the elements that we have been asking for and the fact it isn’t a mod is a definite plus for those of us who really don’t like using mods because we get ‘some’ of what we wanted in this expansion. We do also get Llamas and Bunnies as well as a vast collection of build objects and of course a new world ‘Henford on Bagley’ where there will be a farmers market that you can ‘show’ your prized vegetables and win prizes ooooo. All in all we know we are going to do it, search through our piggy banks, hands down the back of sofas and searching through old bags because maybe just maybe we may find enough to buy the new pack or there is a possibility we may win one on the many giveaways that we see across social media (including ourselves so come join us on twitter). There is also an option to get yourself some BONUS content but you can only do this if you purchase the expansion pack by the 2nd August (a little bit mean for those of the community that really just cannot afford to buy before this date, but then EA gives no f…Figs). TRIXIE MATTEL hosted the Virtual Block party for The Sims on the 21st June over on twitch, did you make it? We absolutely adore Trixie over here and we had so much fun lurking in the background and reading the chat from the community. If you didn’t attend on the night, you can still head on over to Twitch and rewatch the stream although it doesn't have the same buzz in the air as it did on the actual night, just watching Trixie Mattel do her thing was worth the watch on it’s own. I do think though for things like this having an OPEN WORLD where simmers can interact at these events would be pretty amazing, actually attending an event like this in Sims 5 (we know it’s coming) will be the next level to hit and even Even though a huge number of the community

are saying ‘we don’t want to be able to play online’ if this feature comes with an option to have both (and be realistic most games that do offer this, do have a separate ‘online account’ to use, so it isn’t a bad thing you don’t have to use it if you don’t want to. With The Sims 5 in production (and we know it is) there are so many possibilities to further the gameplay aspect as well as the building aspect too, when we look at up and coming games creators and lets take Paraliving as an example, the ideas they are putting into their game creation now, far exceeds what EA are allowing The Sims team to do, so we ask why? What would be the end game for EA if they roll with Sims 4 and it’s bugs and lack of versatility in certain aspects of the game for build and play. It could mean a more dedicated team concentrating on making sure Sims 5 has all we need, including round walls, mirrors that reflect, platforms that don’t remove walls, foundations that don’t vanish and more of things we have been asking for, for so so long now, it’s almost like a daily mantra to just get through the day. But if and it is a big if, the Sims team are spending all their time concentrating on making sure Sims 5 exceeds expectations and does deliver the things these new games creators are ALREADY doing, then they can almost be forgiven for the lack of content, bugs and more in the Sims 4 Almost! Just remember Sims Team, if some of us lose interest in Sims 4 it is because of the failure of EA first and foremost, but then it’s also a failure on The Sims Teams part, because someone back there has to be in charge and be able to say NO MORE CRAP, GIVE THE PEOPLE WANT THEY WANT, without being scared the boss may say no and making sure it’s delivered. Written by SimSimmerly

IPS & RICKS

By A.Muller - ExtraTime.Media

The Sims 2: How to fix the flickering screen on Windows 10 The Sims 2 seems unlikely to return to Origin, but but if you have a copy installed and you are dealing with the dreaded screen flicker, there is a way to play in peace.

That response on Twitter said:

To this very day, The Sims 2 straddles a weird space that both transcends its era and makes it a frustrating game because of some limitations. First released in 2004, the second edition of the popular Sims franchise, The Sims 2 gave players four years of content as the franchise came into its own.

The reason for this is that it’s a very old game and wasn’t designed to be run on the most recent versions of Windows. There is also no support or development team for the game so we wouldn’t be able to help players if things started to go wrong. For those reasons, it wouldn’t be fair to sell the game today. I’m sorry for the bad news.”

In 2021, The Sims 2 remains one of the fan-favourites and in 2014, the release of The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection on Origin brought some nostalgia to players who previously owned the game. But the cult classic was removed from Origin in 2018 and Sims players have been holding out hope for its return. Recently, those dreams were dashed – or at least dealt a blow – after a response from EAHelp to a Simmer’s query about whether the game would ever return to Origin.

“Unfortunately I don’t really have any good news for you. The Sims 2 game is no longer available on Origin and we don’t have any game codes to share.

While that is indeed bad news for players who do not own a copy of The Sims 2, the game is from a time where most games were installed from a Compact Disc (CD) and anyone with a hard copy should still be able to play. The Sims 2 and the dreaded flicker on Windows 10 While it is correct that this “very old game” comes with some technical challenges to be made compatible with newer operating systems like Windows 10, as pointed out by the original poster

in the thread about the game’s return to platforms like Origin, getting The Sims 2 to play nicely on Windows 10 is still possible. We are not going to deal too much with how to purchase a copy of The Sims 2 (there are other helpful sources for that out there). But, your best option is to find copies on places like Ebay and Amazon or even thrift stores. But, with anything purchased from the online retailers, do be careful of scammers. But back to the flickering screen, you get when you play The Sims 2 on newer operating systems on Windows 10. The website leefish.nl has a wealth of resources to help you. These include the relevant “graphics card” downloads to get The Sims 2 working on Windows, including tutorials on how to create your own “graphics card” for The Sims 2 if it does not currently exist. Depending on which version of The Sims 2 you are playing and which expansion you have, your fixes might need to fit into different folders. However, all of these fixes involve creating graphic card rules to get your game to work. While there are several custom fixes you can apply with The Sims Community website offering a really solid tutorial for those who are more technically savvy, downloading and installing the

Greetings everyone, I’m SimmerChase a $35 million USD. The sims has come full gay, day-one Simmer who’s been circle and I hope to pay it forward by sharing what I’ve picked up over time. I am Simming for the last 21 years. grateful that I can now use what was I grew up in the “backwoods” of Indiana, once my safety blanket for a means to population of 400 but always aspired for open up, share my creativity and enable bigger cities, where I could marvel at further inclusiveness in our Sims towers, connect with similar people and community. I now know there are many prove I could be successful on my own. I who were like me but have not got that live in The Racing Capital of the World, spark yet and I hope to be that catalyst Indianapolis, Indiana. By night I’m a that ignites more imagination and YouTube Streamer and no custom creativity. I hope my creations, videos and content (CC) gallery builder who uses all stories help others realize they are not the packs. I usually go big, like 64x64 big. alone because together we have the I’ve created all types of buildings from an power of our strong, diverse and talented American Trailer Park or a Spooky community, sometimes you just need the Apothecary to the Faux Bacon Club Bistro, fire to light the path already in front of complete with 4-level below ground West you. Coast LA inspired techno dance club, karaoke lounge loft and full restaurant I mean it now and forever, at the beginning bistro; I do all builds. The more unique of a and end of each of my videos, “Thank You Everyone, Stay Proud and Go Do purpose the more I get excited. Something Magical.” I hope these 21 tips By day, I work as a graphics designer for a celebrating our community mpowers real estate brokerage firm where I help you to realize your own personal market buildings in real life valued over greatness, that’s what’s magical.

SimmerChase (he/him/dude) Gallery: SimmerChase YouTube: Simmer Chase www.simmerchase.com

11 tips to add some sizzle to your a. Similar to idea 1, instead of adding the trim and columns first you will want to Summer of Sims 1. Glass Shower Cove

opt for the tallest single pane window that fits your ceiling height and include those. b. To create a shower cubical, you will want to divide your rectangle again into 3 squares. c. Enable the bb.moveobjects on cheats d. Add windows to either the front or side of the shower cubes, ensuring you leave at least 1 tile wide for the Sim(s) to be able to use the shower(s) i. Shower cubes have glass walls on the sides and entry in front ii. Multi-person showers have a space in the middle and a window on each side of the front. e. Delete the walls or convert them to a column trim, leaving only the windows in place and trim.

f. Add the simple standing shower(s), decorate, add towels, clutter and you’re set. a. Build a rectangle room 1x3 or wider (to avoid issues with trim) 3. Use a different table for party food b. For a “step-up” shower, click on the fountain room and use the up arrow button to raise floor platform up one step. c. Use the platform trim tool from the build menu, click the platform you want to trim out d. Next, add a column to each corner of the shower cover. e. Then, click the arch tool in to the column button in build mode, click the wall you a. Use the party fountain and default want to become the archway trim over table combination, but shrink the table to the shower the smallest size possible with the “[” key f. Once the trim is in place, add your basic b. Select a table or dresser that you like standing shower, some subtle saucer and place in the center of a room lights, tile and towels and you are set! c. Hold down the ALT key (PC) or CMD key 2. Custom Looking Glass Shower (Mac) and use the mouse to move the Cubicles table with party fountain to center the

fountain over the new table. d. If there is too much space between the top of the table and the bottom of the fountain, use one of the pedestal options under the sculptures menu in buy mode, shrink the pedestal down 1 time with the “[“ key and place under your party fountain.

5. Raised flower beds a. Use the partial walls to create a room as tall as you want your flowerbeds. b. Use the up arrow on the platform options to raise the flower bed to where it is 1 notch below your wall.

e. To move the pedestal up and down use c. Add wall trim, paint, stone or brick to your raised flower bed the 0 key for down or 9 to go up f. Use extra décor items to neatly hide the d. You can add wall sconce lighting for required party table below your table extra nighttime effect and exterior lawn lights in the flower bed.

4. Sunken Hot Tub

e. Choose one of the grass options from a. Use the platform tool and create a block the miscellaneous floor covering options, of space 6x4 to allow for the hot tub and it’s near the stone and tile flooring stairs to fit in. options to paint grass covering in the floor bed. b. Click the down arrow button from the platform control tool and click it 5 times. f. Add flowers, pots, pedestals and layer c. Place a hot tub in the corner of the hole objects to create a full raised flower bed that speaks to you you’ve made, add steps to get down to it. d. The hot tub should be flush with the ground for maximum effect. e. Add steps to the empty area, making sure you leave a 1-tilewide path for your sims to get in the hot tub. f. Add some lighting, tile, platform trim, plants and privacy screens for extra realism.

6. Hydro + Feature Wall

Pyro

Lighted

a. Similar to the Fireplace Behind the Wall trick, but instead of the fire, you’ll add the water jets water feature options too. b. With bb.moveobjects on, you don’t have to add a fountain base or pool, since it’s behind the wall. c. You can decorate the floor with rocks for extra effect.

d. pool, on an area around 6 tiles wide by as long as you’d like to enclose.

7. Below ground entryway a. Create room above ground, copy it to the basement level below b. Delete the ceiling from the basement room by clicking the top edge of the wall, towards the ceiling, click “remove ceiling” c. Go to your first level room, click the b. Use the platform tool to create and outdoor amphitheater design floor and choose “remove floor” d. Now you have an exposed area to the basement, you can build a sub-terranean 11. Authentic theater income a. Use 2 floor levels and create a balcony by property or a great place to send all using only half of the 2 nd floor space those kids! b. Cut the 2 nd floor room space in half with 8. Outdoor kitchen, built-in mini fridge a wall, delete the floor from one of the 2 under countertop rooms a. Add your favorite kitchen island cabinet c. Choose the largest TV you can get, add it or as many as you like together. to the wall in between the empty space of floors 1 and 2 b. Shrink the college dorm fridge 1 size down, hold down the ALT key (PC) or CMD d. Create stadium style seating by using key (Mac) and move your mouse to freely the platform tool, with 1 step up between place the refrigerator in the island. each seating section c. Islands work best for this trick as they e. Create a 2 tile wide by however long don’t have doors that get in the way. you’d like section for seating

9. Built-in BBQ Grill in Countertop

i. Be sure to allow 1 tile wide space for Sims to be able to move freely through the a. Similar to the above, but instead of theatre placing the refrigerator, you will use the 9 key to raise up the grill 1 level, then align f. Add couches, chairs, lighting and décor your preferred grill into a set of island and you’re set for a great movie night. cabinets you’ve placed side-by-side

10. Outdoor Fire-pit with terrace seating a. Like the sunken hot tub idea, add a fire-pit in a lower area of your yard for extra privacy and fire safety. Be sure you make the space large enough for your pit, lounge chairs, cushions and to get around the pit.

Asexual Pride Flag — In August 2010, the asexual pride flag after a period of debate over having a flag and how to set up a system to create one, as many asexual communities as possible were contacted and a flag was announced as the asexual pride flag by one of the teams involved. The flag consists of four horizontal stripes: black, grey, white, and purple from top to bottom. The black stripe represents asexuality, the grey stripe representing the grey-area between sexual and asexual, the white stripe sexuality, and the purple stripe community. https://outrightinternational.org/content/flags-lgbtiq-community

#Machinimalife wit The Voice Of Creating machinimas take a significant amount of time to write, film and edit. Those who have created a machinima, even a short one, will likely say it was hands-down the most challenging content they have created. There is a lot that goes into it. In past issues, we have looked at machinima creation through the eyes of the director, and even those who make poses. There is another hard-working creative group in the machinima community, and they are the voice actors. Unsound Mind is a gorgeous production about Faith Hastings, a woman whose anger and thirst for revenge has changed the course of her life forever. It is a voiceover, or voice-acting, machinima. I had the wonderful opportunity to meet with the voice of Faith, “Yehns,” and talk about her experience as a voice actress.

The Mom Cave: It is nice to meet you. I am excited to talk to different creators in the machinima community. We have machinimators, a fancy word for those of us who create machinima. We have pose and animation creators, without whom we would not have as much control and depth over our stories as we do. We also have this whole group of creatives who are voice actors, who I am just now becoming familiar with as I create my first voice-over machinima.

My very first question is, what got you started as a voice actor?

Yehns:

I am new to voice acting myself. During the pandemic, I had to set up my own home office. I realized that I did not have anything to record with, a mic or a camera. So, I had to get set up with a microphone. I found an affordable microphone online and started playing around with it. When I heard my voice, I realized, “Hey, I think I could do some voice acting.” I went on Casting Call Club and started exploring a bit. I auditioned for a few. I found Unsound Mind, auditioned and I got the role.

th The Mom Cave The Mom Cave: You had this opportunity to explore something new. What is it about voice acting that made you want to try it?

Yehns: Ever since I was little, I have always had an interest in acting and voice acting. I really wanted to try it out because I loved watching movies and watching cartoons. I always wanted to try it out and I never had the opportunity before this. And so, I took the opportunity to try it out.

The Mom Cave: I love that

thing about voice acting, and how have you overcome that?

Yehns: I would say breaking down the emotions line-by-line is a bit challenging. The character has a lot of feelings. So, there are times when her emotions switch up quickly. When I am reading the lines, I have to decide where that emotional switch-up is. Sometimes I get lines and they are a full paragraph, and there are emotional switches within that paragraph. I just have to try it out and see what feels right. I do multiple takes and I try to switch up the emotions in different places to see which

courage to step into something you have never tried before just to see if you truly will like it. I think in our lives we can really talk ourselves out of new experiences because it can very anxiety-producing. I love that you just jumped in with both feet to give it a try.

Yehns: Well, it wasn’t like this would be a very consequential thing for me. I just told myself that, if I tried out for these things and didn’t get it, then I didn’t get it. I would just keep trying out, and just see what comes.

The Mom Cave: That is called a “growth mindset!” I appreciate that perspective quite a bit. What have you found is the most challenging

one works best and which one makes the most sense.

The Mom Cave: That sounds challenging, not having the scene in front of you. What advice, from a voice-acting perspective, would you give to me a as a director?

Yehns: There is a lot of creative freedom that goes into voice acting. You get to best decide how to play out a scene. Giving your voice actors prompts to guide your voice actors would be great. It would guide them in the right direction and give them an idea of the feel you’re looking for in a scene. I would say, however, to not have too many descriptors. It might provide another level of confusion for the voice actors. Giving them a specific set of directions, and the ability to provide their own interpretations of how a scene can play out through multiple takes. Then you as a director can decide what fits best with the scene.

The Mom Cave: Do you play The Sims? What is your favorite Sims game?

Yehns: I do play The Sims. I have been playing since I was very young, when the very first game came out. I remember happening upon it when I was at Toys-R-Us with my parents. They bought it for me and I went home and started playing it. It was really addicting. And also, I got a little scared because I didn’t know my Sims could die. So, when my first Sim died in a fire I was super upset! I ran to my parents crying

and didn’t play for a long time. Eventually, I started playing again because I realized it was just a game. I still like sims 3 the best. It feels a lot more open-world.

The Mom Cave: Ok listen, I am 51 years old and I still get sad when my Sims die. I think we get attached to them, and to their stories. It feels a lot like if we were to watch a TV show or a movie and connect with the characters. On the topic of connecting with our characters, what is it about Faith Hastings that you identify with the most?

Yehns: I feel like I can identify with Faith because I have also been bullied in school before. I know how that can affect someone’s psyche. Killing people is of course a totally inappropriate response, but I can see the pain she went through from all the bullying she experienced. I can understand her feeling like no one has her back and going through so many horrible things. I can see how that can break someone. I can identify with Faith on how it can change someone’s outlook and make them very negative.

The Mom Cave: If someone wanted to start voice acting, what advice would you give them?

Yehns: I do not think you need a lot of

Who is the most inspirational person to you and why?

fancy equipment to start. If you buy a decent microphone, you can start auditioning for things on Casting Call Club and other sites. Just get out there. Remember that rejection is part of the processes. Keep auditioning. Just start. There are times that you might feel like you cannot do this because you’ve never done it before, or that you do not have the “right” equipment. You might feel like you are too inexperienced. Remembering that auditioning, even if you are rejected, is practice. You’re building experience. I would encourage anyone who is interested in trying voice acting to just go for it.

Yehns: This question is so hard to

The Mom Cave: I agree! Just go for it.

The Mom Cave: You can identify how bullying can really change who a person is.

answer for me, because there are a lot of things I admire about different people. When I was growing up, I think Angelina Jolie was my favorite actress on screen. I liked her because she has a dark past but is now contributing to humanitarian efforts. I admired her for a long time. Another one of my idols is Meryl Streep. She is an amazing actress on screen and off screen. I watch her movies and I try to learn from her. She really is a presence in a role.

Hit send. Try.

A big thank-you to Yehns for taking the time to talk to me and sharing your inspiration and wonderful encouragement. You can experience all of the talent behind Unsound Mind on YouTube here https://t.co/ KggkAHhHx4?amp=1

Director of pixels UNSOUND MIND Ladie Rhias [Head Writer/Director]

When Faith Hastings experiences harm at the hands of others, she sets out to seek revenge, and ultimately experiences the aftermath. Follow her story here: https://youtu.be/efdmYiP-cs8

Connect: Twitter: https://twitter.com/ LRhias Facebook: https:// www.facebook.com/ladie.rhias.3 Instagram: https:// www.instagram.com/ladierhias/ Casting Call Club: https:// www.castingcall.club/m/LadieR...

This is the new, more accepted and widely used version of a flag for gay men specifically, similar to the lesbian, bisexual, transgender flags, rather than something to be used by the whole community like the rainbow flag, created by user gayflagblog on the 10th of July 2019. The previous version was contested due to doubts of its intentions, the creators intentions, and the meaning of the colors. Ever since its creation, this one has been more common and accepted by everyone. "The green (Community) and teal (Joy) in the flag represent Nature. I thought this was important because love between men is often seen as “unnatural” in the eyes of society and in religion. Furthermore, gay men have historically used green flowers and plants (Carnations, hyacinths, etc.) to symbolize our love, reinforcing our connection with Nature. The white stripe is adopted from the Trans Pride flag because trans, nb, and GNC men are often erased or talked over and need explicit representation. We have a lot of unadressed and blatant Transphobia, internalized Homophobia, and Toxic Masculinity directed towards GNC/non-cis men in our community that we need to address and resolve. The purple (Fortitude) and indigo (Diversity) in the flag represent diversity in presentation, relationships, & life experience. We’re so often stereotyped as all fitting into these neat little categories, especially by those who choose to fetishize us & by non-MLM, but in reality there are so so many different ways to be a man and so many ways to be a man who loves or who is in a relationship with other men, and this needs to be emphasized. Purple is a mix of blue and red, and seeing as common criticism of other gay man flag proposals is “oh blue for boy? bleh”, I decided to have a light blue stripe leading into a deep purple to symbolize how some of us might be stereotypical, some of us might not be, and some of us are in-between or fluid. Regardless, we should all be celebrated and respected. This flag is inclusive of all gay men. This includes Aro, Questioning/ Unsure, NB, Ace, & Gay men that are Gender Non Conforming, be you Masc, Fem, or Androgynous in any way! Same goes for gay men of any religious background," from gaymansflag

INTRODUCING: JetSetSimmer

---------------------Written by SulziSim

This month we celebrate the LGBTQ+ community. And one petson who fits that agenda is Mike AKA JetSetSimmer. He is a Gay Flight Attendent who happens to be a Simmer and content creator. His Youtube channel is all about sims. When he is not flying in the sky helping people in the plane, he is playing Sims among other games. He mostly does speed build videos on his Youtube channel with the same name. He is known for doing Sims 4 videos on his channel and he also has dived into some Sims 3 gameplay once or twice. He also often participates in the community by completing shell challenges and keeping up with trends

such as the 10 minute build challenge where you have to build a house in 10 minutes or less. I can see that one being quite chaotic. All round he is great builder in the Sims. His creations range from small, tiny townhouse builds to big, outrages and detail builds like a Santorini house. He recently ventured into the livestreaming game on Twitch with the same name.

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Hi, my name's Robin (he/they), I'm a 26 year old transmasculine person from the United Kingdom. While my area of study is Software Engineering, I'm also an avid simmer and foodie. Naturally, when I stumbled onto icemunmun's food mods when I started playing I had to try and combine those two endeavours. Initially I decided to make food because I wanted to add more kinds of food to the game that I would eat, and after puzzling it out a bit, I managed to make my first food mod, a slightly ugly-looking miso soup. Because I happen to be a vegan, it was also a priority of mine to make sure my vegetarian sims had plenty of stuff they can eat (though I do also have a few meat options). You can find me at tumblr, twitter, and at my discord server: Sherwood Forest. The recipe I’ll be doing today is thai green curry with mixed veg & chickpeas. It’s been a comfort food of mine since I was a teen, and it’s one of the few things that I’ve not really had to change that much after becoming a vegetarian (then later even vegan), as it was easy to “veganise”. I love it for how aromatic it is as you cook it and the distinct texture and taste of the sauce. What You’ll Need: Paste • • • • • • • • •

2 shallots (or red onions) 1½tsp Lemongrass paste 1tsp Ginger paste 1tsp Ground Cumin Pepper (to taste, preferably white) Salt (to taste) 2 Small Green Chillies 4 cloves of garlic (or more to taste) Fresh Coriander

Curry Sauce • • • • • • • •

Dried Kaffir Lime Leaves ½ tin of full Coconut Milk (not light, light won’t allow the sauce to thicken) Vegetable Oil (to cook with) Lime Juice (to taste) Soy sauce (to taste) ½ Tin Chickpeas ½ White Onion Your favourite vegetables (personally I like some spinach, broccoli and bell peppers in there, but it’s really up to you)

Rice • Jasmine rice • Water

Instructions 1) Grind together all the ingredients for the paste in a food processor or grinder until it’s a paste, but not smooth. 2) Chop the white onion into pieces, small but not tiny. 3) Begin cooking the jasmine rice separately, so it’s ready when the sauce is.

start cutting the veg you chose (in my case it’s a spinach, broccoli and some yellow peppers, but as said in the ingredients, it can be whatever you have, however bear in mind some veg may need to be steamed before they’re ready to go in the dish, such as the broccoli)

4) In a pan, heat up the oil on medium. Once the oil is hot, add in the paste you just ground up, the white onion, and the chickpeas and cook it on medium heat for 9) Add the veg to the sauce and stir so about 5 minutes. Stir it to make sure it that the sauce coats them, making sure doesn’t burn. you cook any that you’re stir frying (such as sweet peppers/bell peppers). I 5) Now you can add in the coconut milk recommend cooking the spinach (if you and begin to stir, combining the paste have it) in the sauce, as it’s filled with and the milk. nutrients you can lose cooking it another way and it adds to the colour (don’t worry 6) Once the result is a green sauce, you it’ll cook down into the know you’re doing it right, reduce the sauce). heat to low so that it can simmer and reduce. 10) It’s now ready to serve up with 7) Add in soy sauce to taste, though I the don’t recommend too too much! jasmine rice and enjoy! 8) This is where you can

Genderqueer Pride Flag This flag was designed in 2011 by Marilyn Roxie, a genderqueer writer and advocate, and features a lavender, white, and chartreuse stripe. According to Roxie, the lavender stripe is a mix of blue and pink—colors traditionally associated with men and women—and represents androgyny as well as queer identities. The white stripe, like in the transgender pride flag, represent agender or gender neutral identities. The chartreuse stripe is the inverse of lavender and represents third gender identities and identities outside the gender binary.

The English Simmer is a well known and respected Simmer within The Sims community across the world. Not only do her Lets Play videos entertain thousands of her fans daily, Mollies Live Streams on Twitch are also fun and inclusive and a true ‘safe space’ for the LGBTQIA+ community. You can find Mollie entertaining her fans across social media and the one thing I always find with Mollie is that she is always there to support her fans, be it a small supportive reply to a comment, or an all out post defending one of her friends or the games that she loves. The one thing you can always be assured to get from Mollie is Honesty, and that is something the team here at SimmedUp Magazine applaud. If you haven’t followed or watched The English Simmer yet, then make sure to check out Mollies Twitter, Instagram, You Tube and Twitch Channels and we promise you that you won’t regret it, you will laugh, you may cry but in the end, you will be hooked, just like we are.

SimSimmerly: Hi Mollie, Thank you so much for agreeing to do this interview with us you are such an inspiration to so many including our team. Please start with telling us a little about you and how you got into playing ‘The Sims’. The English Simmer: My name is Mollie and I'm now 27 but I started playing The Sims when I was 6 years old! My brother brought it home and we instantly installed it on my dad's pc and I got to stay up late to play it to make my own family as sims. And from that moment it's been a staple in my life. I had always been into playing video games on the n64 and sega megadrive SS: What was life like before The Sims and how did you decided streaming was the way to go and not a 9-5 job like everyone is expected to do? Mollie: Before I started recording and streaming The Sims I was in university studying English Language. During my first year I got really into watching other simmers content on YouTube and then through my second year I decided to invest in a dedicated gaming PC instead of playing of my MacBook and started recording my own gameplay to post on my channel. I reached 100k subscribers by the end of my third year, decided to go with it made me fall in love with The Sims 4 for the and carry on making content for it to be first time purely because myself and my community loved the sim I used so much and my full time job. we're constantly changing her up to make SS: You don’t limit yourself to Just Sims her feel like a brand new sim for every single 4 Lets plays but also create for Sims 2 person she married. and 3, out of all of them, what is your favourite Sims Lets Play Creation to SS: You were invited to be a contestant on The Sims Spark’d show and were one of date? the runners up alongside LittleSiha and Mollie: It's always so hard to choose my Doctor Ashley. How did you find the overall favourite let's play because they all mean experience and would you do it again? so much to me for different reasons and sometimes I just really connect with my Mollie: It was definitely a situation that was sims. But I'd definitely have to say that my out of my comfort zone but that also makes favourite to make has been my Black me really glad that I did it because it was so Widow Challenge. I think it's really what different to anything I'd ever done. Usually made me fall in love with The Sims 4 for playing The Sims is such a single player

SS: You are an icon in the Sims LGBT+ Community, having a gay Simmer that we can relate to that’s as well-known as yourself has also inspired so many to ‘come out’ or just accept who they knew they were anyway. How does being such an inspiration the community feel?

me really glad that I did it because it was so different to anything I'd ever done. Usually playing The Sims is such a single player experience but getting to bounce ideas off my friends and each being able to bring our own individual connection with the game to the stories we were telling was amazing. My favourite challenge was definitely the first one where we had to race to get items to drive our story because team gnome clearly had a dark undertone that we were all connecting to and it made me laugh

Mollie: Being part of both the LGBTQIA+ and The Sims community is one of my favourite things in the world. It feels really incredible whenever anyone comments that my channel is their safe space or a place where they feel represented because that's always the space I've wanted to create and why I'm so loud about my sexuality. I want the LGBTQIA+ community to know they can see themselves in the game on my channel no matter what video they first see from me. SS: Have you come across any negative experiences in coming out as gay? Did you find that you lost followers and friends or did you just gain a bigger following and more supportive friends?

SS: When you started out streaming on YouTube did you ever imagine you would Mollie: Online I didn't really notice anything amass over 290K Subscribers? And what different when I came out are started did it feel like to reach your first 10,000 creating content that including LGBTQIA+ followers? Does it still feel the same with every milestone or do you now take it in your stride with a nice cup of Coffee and a stiff upper lip lol. Mollie: I honestly never expected my channel to take off! There was already so many established sims channels before I started mine and I really just started as a hobby in university because I always loved telling stories in my game. My first 10,000 subscribers definitely didn't feel real. I remember being sat in an arena just after hitting it and my niece was telling me that my audience would have half filled it which was unbelievable. I still celebrate the 100ks and very much on the road to 300k at the mo! Aiming to hit it by the end of 2021 (nudge nudge haha) but I love celebrating with my community who are the ones who actually got me there.

relationships except gaining more support and people finally feeling as if they were being included. Sure sometimes I get some homophobic or transphobic comments but people know my channel isn't a space for that and I will just delete those because I never want my community to see that. Of course there was the whole YouTube hiding lgbtqia+ content under the "safe content" filter which definitely hid some of my videos, but I'd rather that than not having those videos up on my channel at all.

that I get to attend because I just get to hang out with all my best friends, the development team and play The Sims all day! I definitely fangirled over the development team and still do when I meet someone for the first time. I was meant to go to Summer in the City once and Jenna Marbles was going to be there but I got chicken pox 3 days before and couldn't go. I was so upset.

SS: You recently created a video on YouTube ranking every Sims game ever made, how long did this take you? What inspired you to take on this feat And overall which pack was your top voted pack?

Mollie: I think my biggest achievement was EA reaching out to me before The Sims 4 Base Game was released to fly to San Francisco and record some early access gameplay. I only had my channel for 6 months by that point and I couldn't believe that actually happened.

Mollie: Luckily another amazing simmer had already made the tier ranking list because that's the most time consuming part of preparing for those videos. Plumbella inspired me to do it because I absolutely love listening to my friends talk about the game we all love. Abd because I've played since I was 6 years old, I've been lucky enough to try most packs throughout my life. I think the only ones I really missed out on were some of The Sims 3 stuff packs. I always love researching for those types of videos though and reminding myself of the odd things that used to be part of Sims 1 expansion packs. They seem so random because things weren't really split into different packs back then. SS: Being such a big influence in the community, you have been invited to a lot of gaming conventions across Europe. What was your favourite one to date and did you meet anyone you totally fangirled over that you’re willing to reveal to us? Mollie: Oh man that's so tough! I absolutely love conventions but I'd have to say Sims Camp is my favourite event

SS: What would say your biggest achievement to date is?

SS: Streamers are an important part of the gaming industry because it helps to show the content of the game before people decide to dive in and buy. How do you find the relationship between streamers and Content creator’s work and the fact you aren’t paid for reviewing games like the Sims by EA does this have an effect on how you would review the games or is impartiality key when reviewing a game be it Sims or not? Mollie: This is something I've struggled with all throughout my time as a content creator. For a while I was calling my early access videos reviews to let people know it was new content and I was playing it for the first time but I've never really tried to review the game numerically. The way I see it is I'm a fan of the games I play, I always have been and of course I'm always excited by new content because its new. But I try to cover as much as I can on my channel so that people know what they are paying for or in some cases what's missing. Of course I'll always throw in my ideas of what I feel is missing, what could be done better or what I think is

done and covered well because I still want my personality to come across in my v i d e o s . T h e re ' s g a m e s journalists who are paid to w r i t e numerical reviews and who review a bunch of games on top of The Sims, whereas I'm a player first and foremost. SS: Are there any other games you play and what would be your favourite game for Chilling to and what game would you recommend for playing with your friends if any? Mollie: I play so many other games! Sometimes on my YouTube channel, sometimes on twitch and other times just for myself. I absolutely love the Life is Strange series, I would say it's my second favourite franchise to Sims. Obviously this last year I've played an awful lot of Animal Crossing New Horizons but right now I'm loving Red Dead Redemption 2 in my spare time. When it comes to playing with friends, there's a lot of phasmophobia, Stardew Valley multiplayer and Among Us. Anything that we can have a laugh to together. SS: If EA called you up and said Mollie we need you to design us a brand new EP and let you do anything you wanted, what EP would you want to see in the Sims and why? Mollie: Oh my goodness, the POWER!!! Honestly if we weren't getting Cottage Living officially, it probably would have been that! I'd also love to see some form

of a Generations back and really fill out the life stages in Sims 4 but my all time favourite pack is a real hobby based expansion. One that has a dedicated hobbie system, with talents and things like that. I always just want more interests for my Sims. SS: The team has confirmed Sims 5 in production what are your hopes for the future of The Sims and what would you say are the bits we do have that we could maybe do without?Mollie: I have to say I don't think I'm too fussed by a multiplayer for The Sims 5 unless it works like Animal Crossing where I can invite my friends over to a specific save and have our Sims interact with one another, that could be so much fun! I really just hope the expansion packs go back to being bigger in scope. I feel like Sims 4 is quite limiting because of that and often the expansions don't feel like they expand the game, especially not as much as they used to. SS: Do you have any upcoming projects you can tell us about? Mollie: I've got my fingers and toes crossed that I'll hopefully be chosen to have some early access content for Cottage Living! And I don't know if I can talk about it yet (I know everyone says that!) but I have just taken part in something very cool and a new experience for me so I'll be talking about that on my socials when I know I can. SS: If any of our readers want to know where to find you how do that do that? Mollie: I go by The English Simmer online and upload 5 times a week over on my YouTube channel https://YouTube.com/ theenglishsimmer stream Monday and Wednesdays over on my twitch https:// twitch.tv/englishsimmer and I'm always on twitter, chatting about gaming, music, books or anything that takes my fancy at https://twitter.com/englishsimmer Thanks so much again for asking me to be part of this!!

YouTube: YouTube channel https://www https://YouTub TheEnglis Monday and Wednesd Wednesda https://twitch.tv Twitter: https://twitte And on Twitter at https://t

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w.youtube.com/user/ be.com/theenglishsimmer stream shSimmer days ays over on my twitch v/englishsimmer er.com/EnglishSimmer twitter.com/englishsimmer

witch.tv/englishsimmer

In celebration of Pride Month, I bring to you the boldest, brightest By KawaiiFoxita and most colourful custom content that creators have to offer. Stand out against the crowd and shine with rainbow colours; creating a cheerful and uplifting palette for your Sims. Fly your flag high. Show everyone that Love is Love. Happy Pride!

Rose & Butterfly Bedroom Neinahpets @ The Sims Resource

Kawaii Lips Art KawaiiFoxita @ SimsFileShare

Miranda Living Room Cushion Severinka @ The Sims Resource Lamp Onyxium @ The Sims Resource

Most Luxurious Bedding V2 Peacemaker @ Tumblr.com

Elle End Table LeoSims @ LeoSims.com

Bedend Ottoman Peacemaker @ Tumblr.com

Hampton’s Hideaway Mirror Peacemaker @ Tumblr.com Color Me Rug Peacemaker @ Tumblr.com

Mid Century Eclectic Peacemaker @ The Sims Resource

Atwood Living Side Table Peacemaker @ The Sims Resource

Mid Century Abode Art Peacemaker @ The Sims Resource

Moku Chaise Sofa Peacemaker @ The Sims Resource

Sorbus Coffee Table Wondymoon @ The Sims Resource

Wooden Dolls by Vita Meinkatz @ Meinkatz Creations

JBL Speaker KatieSimspire @ The Sims Resource

Ivy Console LeoSims @ Leosims.com

Rideaux Sheer Cutains SyBouBou @ S4cc.syboulette.fr

Rug by Made Meinkatz @ Meinkatz Creations

To find out more about KawaiiFoxita visit kawaiifoxita.com

Gay Pride Flag Gilbert Baker created the gay pride flag in 1978, and it originally had eight stripes. The colors in order, were hot pink to represent sex, red for healing, yellow for sun, green for serenity with nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit. In the years since, the flag has been reduced to six colors: the flag no longer uses hot pink, and the turquoise and indigo have been replaced with royal blue.

CC How To

With MaddyCatts

Welcome back Simmers! In today’s tutorial we are going to learn how to add texture to our recolors with Sims 4 Studio. This will give you an almost infinite range of possibilities to create gorgeous items with your favorite designs and patterns. The best part? It’s a lot easier than you think! Let’s get started shall we?

Step 5

So we are going to take a basic swimsuit and give it a snazzy summer makeover with a fun, floral inspired print. I’m going to use daisies, one of my favorite flowers but feel free to use any other texture you like such as plaid, geometrics, stripes, polka dots or even another floral. The principles will be the same and you’re going to end up with a stunning new swimsuit for your Sims!

Grab a snippet or sample of the pattern or save it as an image for future use. Drop the snippet onto a temporary workbook page (I use Microsoft Publisher but you can use

Open your favorite internet search engine and find a pattern you love for your swimsuit. Here is the one I chose. Cute right?

Step 6

Step 1 Open S4S and select Standalone recolor under the CAS heading. Once the catalog loads select the plain black swimsuit for adult females.

Step 2 Click Next and name your file Swimsuit Recolor. Click Save.

Click on the Textures tab and click Export near the bottom of the studio screen. Name this png file Swim and then click save.

anything - Word, Open Office, Power Point etc) It’s Nice to keep this workbook page handy when you are creating so you can drop your samples there, especially if you goof and need to grab it again. It’s such a headache to have to go back to google and do that process all over again.

Step 4

Step 7

Open your Paint program and select Open. Navigate to your Swim png file and select it.

Select your sample and select Copy (or Ctrl+C) and go back to Paint.

Step 3

Step 8 Select paste (Ctrl+V) and you will see your lovely swatch appear.

Step 9 Select Copy to save your sample to the clipboard. Next click Undo until the sample is gone. We’ve saved it to the clipboard so we’ don’t need it hanging around on our canvas. This makes it almost impossible for us to forget to delete the swatch later. When that happens the texture is actually saved along with our swimsuit and the pattern ends up in the Sim’s hair. It’s not a good look lol.

Step 10 Using the Magic Wand (under Tools) select all areas of the swimsuit until they are surrounded by the marching ants.

Step 11 In the menu select Effects > Fill > Fill from clipboard. A new window will open. Before you make any changes you will want to grab the heading of this task box so you can drag it off to the side a little bit. This will give you a chance to see in real time what the swimsuit looks like with the changes you are making before you click OK.

The various options in this menu let you control the placement and scale of your textures. It’s a great idea to play around with them a little bit and get a sense of what each function does and how it affects the look of your chosen textures.

Step 12 For my daisy texture I have selected Tiling with Vertical Mirroring. I also ended up with a Zoom configuration of 1.31 which I think looks pretty good. Zoom will change the scale or graduated dimensions of your pattern. For example my daisies at a zoom level of look bold and dominant but the exact same texture at a zoom level of looks dainty and delicate. Once you like the way the texture looks on the swimsuit go ahead and click Ok.

Step 13 Save your work and open Studio. Click Import and select your Swim png file. Isn’t it cool?! That drab swimsuit is now transformed into a stunning showpiece that any Sim would be proud to take a dip in! But we have one more step so let’s head back to Paint.

Step 14 This step is actually optional, I’ll explain. What we’re going to do now is open the

effects panel and jot down the specs we used to finalise our texture for the swimsuit. You will want to do this if you plan on making matching or coordinating pieces from the same texture, for example a bikini top and bottom or a matching shirt and shorts etc. you want the texture/pattern to have the exact same scale so they look like they were cut from the same cloth so to speak. So you will just want to take a screenshot or write down the exact choices you made with your texture effects. If you are just making a single garment this step is not necessary and you can go back to Studio to finalise your project.

Step 15 In Studio look at your 3-D model from all angles and make sure that the swimsuit looks awesome. Now click Save and Ok. Navigate to your Swimsuit Recolor.package file and place it in your Test folder which you have already created within your Mods folder. Load up your game and test it out!! I bet it looks amazing and who did it? YOU did it!!

Thanks for tuning in to another Sims 4 tutorial. Don’t forget to tag us here at Simmed Up Magazine - we can’t wait to see what you’re creating!! Until next time Dag Dag and happy Simming!!

Left to right: SulziSim; Spherearcana; The Mom Cave; Sarcastic Britt; MaddyCatts; Yolimi; SimSimmerly; Minraed; The Simming Spoonie; SueSimming

Left to right: KawaiiFoxita; LaarStudio/Maria; Izzy-Meiagd; Ivana; Grace; The Flaming Plumbob; K8Simsley; SassiJ; Antoinette

By The Simming Spoonie Project Highrise is a 2D tower-building simulation game by Kasedo Games. It was released nearly 5 years ago, but I still find myself coming back to this glorious sim time and time again. The aim of the game is to keep your tower inhabitants happy, whether they are offices, shops, apartments, restaurants or even hotels! The game has a couple of gameplay modes, you can work on building your own tower, or you can take on one of a number of scenarios.

The scenarios vary in difficulty from easy to hard and to unlock some of them you will need to have completed a particular scenario. This gives a type of story progression, which I think is awesome. There are many things that you have to worry about when keeping tenants happy. Most of the units you can build, i.e. apartments have certain wants, some that need to be fulfilled, like electricity, water, phone, cable TV. Some have preferences such as prefers to be on upper floors or does not like noise or smells. You will also have to deal with the refuse from your towers. You’ll start any level, whether your own tower or a scenario tower with a screen that looks a bit like this. You have a construction office, with two workers, an electrical transformer and a wiring cupboard. Before a tenant moves in, you will need to make sure that they have everything

they need, electricity, water, phone and lines, and cable TV are provided by building their relevant transformer, switchboard, transceivers, meters and manifolds. All of these services have to built in the underground section of your tower. Each unit will need to be wired, or plumbed in as well, using handily colour coordinated wires and pipes. Not only do tenants require these basic utilities, they also require all sorts of other services, offices need business support such as couriers, copy services, bottled water. As your type of tenant improves in quality, so will their service needs, high-end firms will need helicopter charters and limousine services! The same can be said of apartments, services start off with

handymen and laundromats, and as tenants become wealthier they start to demand yoga services and wealth advisers. When it comes to shops, they start off needing nothing more than a storage bay, but luxury two-storey stores demand services like wine tasting and knife demo booths. All of these services cost money to upkeep, but the rent you can expect to make from the higher-end renters can make it a sound investment. Managing your expenses and income is relatively simple using ADA your dotmatrix printout. I think ADA is a really intuitive way to do so. As you can see here, she provides a number of views to help you manage your tower, she can also tell you what services are struggling to keep up with demand, population feedback, such as “I wish I could get a cup of coffee” help you to decide which type of unit to invest in next. Ada will also tell you

earned through increasing your tower’s population, from buying artwork, having happy tenants and also from completing special contracts. These contracts are a great way to create investment money, but you can only have two active at any one time, so be careful which ones you end up choosing, as some may be impossible to fulfil given your current rating. Another interesting metric Project Highrise employs is “Media Buzz”. Buzz is earned from people visiting your Restaurants and Cafes and your the number of utilities you have spare. Retail Stores. When you have a As you start wishing to higher rent-paying tenants certain amount of buzz, you can for your units, there is another metric you will need spend it on Media Campaigns. to pay attention to, and that is prestige. Higher These media campaigns can be levels of prestige attract high-end tenants and incredibly helpful, you can, for open up growth opportunities. Prestige can be example, spend it on the “It’s a Steel” campaign. This allows you to build floors more cheaply, it gives a 50% reduction on construction costs for new floor tiles, elevators, stairwells and utility closets. As you can imagine, this is incredibly beneficial when you are looking to expand your tower. You will need to be careful about when you employ these, as each time you activate a campaign, it increases the cost of the next campaign. The last metric I will discuss in this review is influence. Influence comes from your apartment residents and select offices, it allows you

to place consultants offices, which make certain upgrades available, such as improving the amount of traffic that comes from public transit, allowing you to automate the renovation of your units, increase the height limit on your tower and increase the number of tiles you are allowed to use. Placement of your units, wiring closets and services is incredibly important to create an aesthetic tower block, this is made maddeningly difficult as each type of unit has its own set size. This can make you wish you had placed your new office one tile to the right, to allow for a door to block out noise. Units can be moved, with the addition of a movers office, but they have to move to an area of entirely clear floor space. In addition, each floor requires its own plumbing and wiring closet, I have made the mistake of forgetting these on occasion and

chaos ensued as I tried to find a way to make them fit. Project Highrise’s aesthetic is gorgeously simple, yes, it would have been nice to have been able to change the decor in some of the apartments so that they weren’t all orange, but overall it’s this simplicity that keeps my attention so focused. The music is surprisingly addictive, I often find myself humming the “elevator” style tunes long after I have exited the game. If you are looking for a well crafted, intuitive management sim, you won’t go wrong with Project Highrise. Project Highrise is available on Steam. Developed by SomaSim and published by Kasedo Games.

Agender Pride Flag The agender pride flag, created by Salem X in 2014, has seven horizontal stripes. The black and white stripes represent an absence of gender, the gray represents semi-genderlessness, and the central green stripe represents nonbinary genders.

Hi Sierra, Thank you so much for agreeing to do this interview with us, we are extremely excited to have this opportunity to find out more about you and your charity work for the LGBTQ+ community.

drag more and more and I decided to put up a redemption for it on my channel, and someone quickly redeemed it and then all of a sudden, I had to do drag for the next stream. Then I did it for the following one, and the next, and it just kept going.

You are known in the community as an Alien Drag Queen from space, when you were creating your drag persona, how did you come up with the idea for the Blue Alien style that everyone has come to know and love?

The LGBT movement has changed so many lives for the better, with allowing people to be who they always knew they were in private, that they can now be themselves in public. We still get those ‘few’ people who are against things like public displays of affection between Gay couples, and write to media companies moaning about gay representation in adverts. If you could say one thing to these people to help them understand that love is universal, what would you say?

I think I always knew I wanted to be blue! Growing up I was always drawn to sciencefiction and space, and particularly any characters that were blue. I think a lot about Twi’leks and Chiss from Star Wars and Plavalaguna from Fifth Element. It also just happens to be my favourite colour! How did people respond when you first introduced SierraXMyst to the community and how have they changed to date? Everyone was very supportive! I had been talking about how I was starting to try out

I think it is fantastic that in many parts of the world people can be open publicly about their gender and sexuality. When I think about the people who push back against our representation, I really wish they realized that this is, for many, the first time they are seeing themselves

represented in media – despite us always being here. It may seem like “a lot” to them, but really what that says to me is that they have just been ignoring us for so long. Your charity work speaks for itself, you are a charity Success Manager for Tiltify who raise funds for charities such as 22Kill who raises awareness and combats suicide in Veterans, 1Up On Cancer which helps support people in the USA with Cancer and more. With so many good causes to support, can you tell our readers how you got involved and do you have any more charity campaigns coming up our readers can get involved with? Find an organization that you truly care about and have a connection to, there are so many incredible causes! Reach out to those organizations and just start fundraising. Even if you only raise $100,

that is $100 that the organization did not have before, and $100 can accomplish a lot depending on the charity. You are also part of The Rainbow Arcade team on Twitch, an Inclusive LGBTQIA2+ community with streamers such as Dagonmar, Saffista, Toph and Pookajutsu. The whole team streams a variety of games and your speciality is on Science Fiction and Simulation whilst trying to maintain a cosy and uplifting community for everyone. Can you tell us more about The Rainbow Arcade and why our readers really should head on over to Twitch right now and follow the whole team. Rainbow Arcade is absolutely your onestop to find all kinds of members of the LGBTQIA2+ community on Twitch. I like to think our role as a team is a stepping stone to finding more community as each member represents different aspects of our larger community, and they are connected to their own communities outside the team. What do you think needs to be done to be more inclusive in the gaming industry for the LGBTQI2+ community? Representation matters, and it matters at all levels. I want to see more LGBTQIA2+ characters, developers, representatives, executives. And not just the same LGBTQIA2+ people we see. Where are the BIPOC LGBTQIA2+? The disabled LGBTQIA2+? Do you have any advice for LGBT people that want to start streaming? Just go for it! Now more than ever with Peer2Peer and the

new tags on Twitch it is easier to find your communities and connect with people!

Whether that was cafés, gardens, or even just a nicely sized, cozy apartment.

Let’s talk a little bit about The Sims, you recently raised over $12,000 for charity True Colours United a charity helping Youth Homelessness in the LGBT+ community, in creating The Queerest World collaboration with 15 other streamers. Can you tell us more about the collab and the people involved?

The Sims team have recently announced The Summer of Sims and the release of new game content. Starting with The Courtyard Oasis pack on May 18th to the Dream Home Decorator pack where you can makeover your fellow townies homes. If you could create a whole new EP what would you like to see included in the Sims Franchise?

I had always wanted to do a file save, but it always seemed very daunting to do it alone. So I thought, okay well what if I invited some people to help me collaborate on it, well what if they were all members of the L G B T Q I A 2 + community, well what if we all raised charity at the same time… it just kept building up from there. I had some other Simmer friends and reached out to them, got recommendations for others, and just asked who wanted to participate! It was amazing, I really felt like we got to represent our community, build something unique and amazing, and I met so many great people through the whole process. The Sims has been an ‘Escape’ for millions of people across the world, allowing them to be their true ‘simselves’ in game, from having the home of their dreams, to even having a family they may not be able to have in real life. What would you say is your ‘Biggest escape’ within the Sims franchise? For me it was always about building the spaces that I did not have access to.

Honestly, with the dream home decorator pack and the recently announced cottage life, I am not sure what else I could ask for at this point! Maybe go to the moon? We all have someone we look up to in the Sims community, who would you say has inspired you most to date and why? Someone I met during #FreshNewWorld was MomoMisfortune and I absolutely fell in love with them immediately. Their advocacy for adding pronouns into the game really inspired me and their community is so full of support for one another. If you could give our readers one piece of advice what would it be? Do things that make everything else follows.

you

happy,

And how can our readers find you? You can find me on Twitch, Twitter, and Instagram as sierraxmyst! Thanks again Sierra we appreciate the interview. Thanks so much for asking!

really

Vlada - vdshakh By Izzy-MEIAGD (Translated by LaarStudio) Hello, my name is Vlada. I am 20 years old and I am from Ukraine! You might also know me from Instagram and Tumblr where my handle is @vdshakh_sims (https:// www.instagram.com/vdshakh/) and @vdshakh (https://vdshakh.tumblr.com/) I am currently studying Mathematics and Computer Science in university.

I love detective stories, anything from books to series to movies. I am also a fan of Formula 1, and supporting McLaren! Overall, the majority of my publications are Blender renders of The Sims 4, however, you can also find landscapes in my work from The Sims 2. Speaking of rendering, usually to create one full piece can take an entire day or maybe even two. That doesn’t include coming up with the concept of the creation, that can take me a couple of weeks, but I like to find my inspiration on Pinterest. Not too long ago I finished a series following a few NPCs from The Sims 2, my future projects are to create sets The Sims 2 as well as The Sims 4. The first character in this set was Olive Specter and her husband Ichabod, from the ground you can even see the arm of Earl. E. DeMise! The next family I’m planning on rendering is the Pancakes as well as Ms. Bella Goth herself, however I am always open to requestions and suggestions! To find out more about my process of creativity, visit my pateon https:// patreon.com/vdshakh where I also do howto's of my work in Blender! Thank you to Vlada so much for working with us!

Мене звати Влада, мені 20 років, я з України. Ви можете знати як @vdshakh на Tumblr чи @vdshakh_sims у Instagram. Вивчаю математику та програмування в університеті. Обожнюю детективи (як читати, так і дивитись), а також цікавлюсь Формулою 1 і вболіваю за McLaren. В основному більшість моїх публікацій - це рендери на базі TS4 у Blender, однак інколи серед публікацій можна побачити пейзажі із TS2. Якщо говорити про рендери, то зазвичай на створення одного повноцінного зображення я витрачаю цілий день, інколи два. У цей проміжок не входить час придумування основної ідеї, оскільки інколи процес створення концепту може займати близько 2 тижнів. Натхнення на більшість своїх рендерів я знаходжу на Pinterest. Не так давно я закінчила триптих з канонічними NPC з TS2, тож наступна ціль - серія зображень з премейдами другої та четвертої серії гри. Першою у цій серії стала Olive Specter зі своїм чоловіком Ichabod Specter, а з землі можна побачити руку Earl E. DeMise. Надалі розглядаю сюжет з сімейством Pancakes, а також Bella Goth, однак насправді я завжди відкрита до побажань, кого саме хочуть побачити followers. Також більш детальніше про процес створення рендерів на власній сторінці https://patreon.com/ vdshakh Special thanks to LaarStudio (Maria) and SueSimming for all of your help!

Art by Vlada (vdshakh)

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEXUALITY IN THE SIMS 1 & 2 The Sims franchise has seen major changes throughout the last two decades that have revolutionised the representation of the LGBTQIA+ Community in The Sims. Fortunately, as a Sims Community, we were fortunate enough to influence some of these major game changes that now allow us a lot more creative freedom and inclusivity. We are now able to customise gender settings; a Sim’s physical frame, clothing preference and more. We are also able to select whether this Sim will be able to become pregnant, impregnate others or remain infertile. In the franchise’s first game, The Sims, we were unable to officially “marry” same-sex couples let alone let alone have the freedoms to create whoever we want. However, the issue with pitting all four PC games against each other is that historical context behind the development of each game is vastly different and must be taken into perspective. So, this month I have started back at the beginning of the franchise, focusing on the historical

background of LGBTQIA+ rights in North America, and the United Kingdom, and how this influenced the representation of the LGBTQIA+ community in The Sims 1 and 2. Firstly, The Sims was developed in North America in the 1990s and released in 2000. Four years prior to its release, on September 21st 1996, President Clinton signed the Defence of Marriage Act. This banned the federal recognition of same-sex marriage, defining marriage as "a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife." Reflected in The Sims, only male and female Sims could get married. However, same-sex couples can move in together. They were recognised as roommates, but same-sex relationships and platonic friends could not be distinguished. Also, as marriage is only classed as a social interaction and not a recognised status, the game will not differentiate between gay and straight couples once the “Move-In” or “Get Married” interaction is selected.

Households with two or more adults Sims of either gender may randomly receive a phone call asking if they would like to adopt a baby. Therefore, in The Sims, same-sex couples could adopt a baby. Despite the forbidden act of same-sex marriage, in 1997, New Jersey became the first state to allow same-sex couples to adopt jointly, whereas the Adoption and Children Act 2002, granted a single person or a same-sex couple the right the adopt a child in the United Kingdom (not including Scotland). IVF treatment was available for lesbian couples too. If Hot Date is installed, Simmers can take Sims of either sex on a date. However, the Simmer will see that the autonomous dates taking place Downtown will be between a male and female sim only. But due to the lack of recognition of marital status in game, the dates taking place will often include already “married” couples, sometimes with their partners also on dates in the same room. This further suggests these dates may be platonic, and not necessarily romantic as no jealousy was caused. However, it is odd that the game would exclude same-sex pairings if these randomly generated dates were not serious. There was no story-progression in The Sims either, so these dates would not have had a massive impact on gameplay anyway. Overall, in The Sims, all Sims are arguably Bisexual, as they have no gender preference. Whilst not autonomously, Sims of either sex can engage in romantic social interactions

and can be played as Bisexual, Gay or Straight at the player’s discretion. While we see the reflection of Clinton’s law in game, the developers simultaneously allow some freedom for LGBT Simmers of that time. Released in 2004, The Sims 2 is more flexible in terms of representation by providing a sliding scale of sexual orientation in game. Historically, 2004 started to see the legalisation of Same-sex marriage in countries such as the United Kingdom through the Civil Partnership Act 2004, giving same-sex couples the same rights and responsibilities as married straight couples. Also, in 2004, Massachusetts became the first US state to legalize same-sex marriage. Such freedoms were reflected in The Sims 2, as Sims could marry whoever they wanted; married Gay and Bisexual Sims would be recognised as a Joined Union. Engagement parties and Marriage parties remain the same for Gay and Bisexual Sims. Preset Sims begin in game with predetermined values of sexuality. Most sims are “passive bisexuals”, in the sense that while they do not flirt with members of the same-sex autonomously, they will not react negatively if a Simmer directs their Sim to flirt with them either. Using tools such as SimPE or InSimenator or using the cheat,

From Left: Johnny Smith & Ripp Grunt, Nervous Subject & Pascal Curious, Kent Capp & Titania Summerdream boolprop testingcheatsenabledtrue, Simmer’s can access the Sim’s personal files to find the degree of attractiveness a Sim feels towards both sexes. There are also mods that allow a Simmer to set a Sim’s sexual preference. It has been revealed through this tool and through behaviour of certain premade Sims, that some are suggested to be gay, lesbian or bisexual. As shown in Strangetown, Simmers have identified Ripp Grunt being bisexual. At the beginning of the game, he has a high relationship with Johnny Smith, and is also friends with Ophelia Nigmos, who is currently romantically involved with Johnny. According to his bio, “Ripp totally doesn't care what you think of him. He is going to do whatever he wants to do,” and combined with his Romance aspiration, could suggest that he may become romantically involved with both Sims thus doing, “whatever he wants to do”. Nervous Subject is suggested to be Gay as he is repulsed by women flirting with him but is neutral towards men. As he is good friends with both the Curious brothers, he will always turn up on their lot when Pascal Curious is

giving birth. Whether this was a predetermined action implemented by the developers or not, most Simmers have paired Nervous Subject up with Pascal Curious either way. In Veronaville, Kent Capp shows a preference to males despite being romantically involved with Bianca Monty and being Titania Summerdream's crush. Another example is Jason Cleveland. Despite being married to Marissa Cleveland at the beginning of the game, he is arguably bisexual. Similarly, to Kent Capp, he prefers male Sims but both Sims’ predetermined storylines are paired with women. In The Sims 2 University, the bio of the Friends household in Académie Le Tour, reads, “Mitch and Max met the first day of school and struck up a friendship. What will they discover now that they've moved out of the dorms and are on their own?” ambiguously suggesting that the two Sims may be more than just friends. However, it is up to the player’s discretion whether to develop this further. La Fiesta Tech‘s Freshman student, Frances J. Worthington III, “prefers to

From Left: Frances J. Worthington III, Circe Beaker, Titania Summerdream keep to himself and is hoping to join the secret society he keeps hearing about.” This suggests that the “secret society” is either the LFT Society or could allude to his sexuality. Most of the fandom play Frances as a Gay Sim. Further research into premade sims has revealed that the only preset Bisexual Sims are female. Circe Beaker in Strangetown and Titania Summerdream in Veronaville, have equal preferences to both male and female Sims. In addition, Ariel Capp from Veronaville is predetermined to be Bisexual when she ages to teen. Subsequently, there are no Gay premade female Sims in game.

cannot stress how important it is to consider the historical context when looking at these games with a finetooth comb. I would love to create an entire blog post on how the representation of the LGBTQIA+ community has progressed through The Sims 3 and 4, and the representation of the community through the console games. If this is something Simmers would like, please let me know. As always, stay awesome, and Happy Pride! Melissa x

Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed writing and researching for this as I am always discovering things in the older games that I would other have overlooked as a child. Not through ignorance but through a lack of a proper education on such topics that can be linked to in-game. The progression of creative freedoms must be praised, and it is interesting to see how developers have incorporated some inclusivity with real-life restrictions in place. Furthermore, I

Sources: https://www.bl.uk/lgbtq-histories/lgbtqtimeline# https://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/19/ us/lgbt-rights-milestones-fastfacts/index.html https://www.equaldex.com/timeline https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ ukpga/2004/33/contents https://www.stonewall.org.uk/keydates-lesbian-gay-bi-and-transequality https://www.history.com/topics/ gay-rights/history-of-gay-rights

SARCASTIC BRIT Join Sarcastic Brit each month where he Adventures into Sims 2 on PSP and asks you to come along for the journey

Hello Simmers and welcome back to another step on our road through nostalgia with The Sims2 on the playstation portable, you may remember where we left off last time but if not let me remind you. We’d just arrived in Strangetown after purchasing a mansion from Bella Goth, and hitching a ride with the town's Deputy by way of bribery through donuts found in nowhere else but the trash of Mambo Loa’s Curio Shoppe.

the whole neighbourhood would be overrun.

Isaac Rossum

The mechanics behind this job work similar to the social minigames, and other aspects similar to the jobs found in The Urbz. A number of graves are on the screen and each correspond to a button on the handheld console, when a zombie begins to climb out from the grave you press the button and WACK! You’ve just sent the undead packing, press the wrong button and you will just stun yourself by getting your shovel stuck in the mud.

Arriving in the quaint little culdesac of Strangetown, we are given a brief rundown of our new neighbours;

The Deputy ends the conversation off with an offer of work, which upon further investigation leads to a strange situation in Strangetown, and only the first of many I assure you. The entire neighbourhood was built upon a graveyard, and this has caused the inhabitants of the graves to become so restless that at night they lunge forth from their eternal resting place and climb out of the dirt. Were it not for Duncan the deputy putting them back into their graves surely

Hazel Dente

Isaac Rossum the inventor, Hazel Dente a woman getting married again, the Beakers who are a couple of scientist types, and finally there is Doctor Newlow. Along with the neighbours who live nearby there is also a maid who was sold along to us with the mansion, Bella Goths questionable ethics are clearly on show as we apparently don’t need to pay her, or feed her, is this technically human trafficking?

Before we got to hacking away with our shovel however, it was time to get the ball rolling with the story of The Sims 2, and to do such a thing we needed to head over towards the home of Doctor Newlow, the mysterious voice on the other side of the phone. While he never introduces himself over the line, the text box gives us his name so we can easily identify him, it’s not cheating I swear. Doctor Dominic Newlow whose name is awfully similar to a c e r t a i n c o s t u m e d character that will be important later, firstly congratulates us on finding our way to him without any help before attempting to lure us into working for him as an assistant, eluding to us that he may be eager to tell us where our car is and Oscar the mechanic, if we help him. Without any real option we’re told what we will be aiding Doctor Dom with.

He is a self-proclaimed philosopher of sorts, and deals in trading secrets. Those familiar with the secret mechanics detailed in prior issues of this retro review will likely know where this is going. The inquisitive doctor goes further in telling us that he only wishes for secrets of life, the universe, and everything. Thankfully such secrets are easy to come by in Strangetown and several secret objects can be found with ease lingering around both the gas station map, and the Strangetown cul-de-sac, meaning that by this point anyone should have the minimum required that he’s asking for, five for a special bonus. To give you an idea on the supreme artistic writing and humour present through the secrets, I’ll share the five we’re selling to you here. “The original ‘Bogeyman’ had a condition that made him secrete snot from his sweat glands”. “The living dead prefer to use the more inclusive term ‘respiratorily challenged’” “If the woman you love is always nearby, but never seems to notice you. Stop stalking her.” “Water torture is generally ineffective, since water doesn’t really have anything to hide.” “Most experts agree that sticking pins in a doll’s rear is more effective than in the eye.” With these five patrician secrets sold to Dr. Newlow for a price of two-hundred and fifty simoleons each, our quest is completed and we can then speak to the doctor to inquire about that bonus he promised us. The doctor begs us to wait for a moment while he gets something out, but when he does it isn’t to reward us at all, what he removes is a strange handheld device that zaps him away in a beam of light, vanishing from before our very eyes into nothingness.

One mechanics skill check later, and we’re able to open up that secret passage and enter into the safe house of Dr. Newlow, or who we will now be referring to as; Doctor Dominion! Dressed in all red spandex and adorned with plumbobs scattered around his chest decoratively, with a single large one as a centerpiece. Within only a few moments of speaking to the great Doctor Dominion, we are captivated by his charm and charisma, but most importantly his mind control device that is now hovering above our Sims head, it looks oddly and eerily familiar to something we’ve seen before, that’s because it’s a plumbob. Up to this point of the game we had been chased by one in the opening cinematic introduction to the game, but now for the first time we have one fixed over our head. With the plumbob floating above our head we can do nothing but follow the orders and commands of our new controller and leader, Doctor Dominion, our new master who we will assist in his nefarious deeds. The first commands we are given are of course to leave the dwelling of Doctor Dominion and await further instruction, our new glorious leader will contact us no doubt as we go about exploring the rest of the neighbourhood here in Strangetown, especially given the nature of the doctors self-announced philosophical interest, together I foresee us discovering plenty of secrets in the name of science and Doctor Dominion. Join me next time fellow Simmers to continue along our journey back in time to the days of The Sims 2, and come back to continue discovering the deep secrets that are held within Strangetown.

What does this mean? Well, thankfully due to the walls of the home becoming transparent to prevent the obstruction from view, we can quite easily see that there is a false door and a safe room behind one of the doctors bookshelves, and inside of such a place is a familiar looking man in some kind of superhero costume, can it possible be the same doctor? Images and full background history for The Sims 2 PSP can be found at https://sims.fandom.com

A talented, funny, and creative streamer. Rhys Moon tells it how it is without holding back. His Twitch streams are high energy and always humorous. Rhys is a vocal member of the LGBTQ+ community and we are all here for it. I want to start by thanking you for agreeing to speak to me. It is an honor to talk with you, honestly. Why don’t you start by telling us about yourself, who is Rhys outside of The Sims Streamer we know and love? Thank you so much for having me! So, my name is Rhys, I’m in my 20s and I live in Wales with my fiance and my dog, Dougie. Outside of Twitch, I work full-time - five days a week, 9-5. When I’m not working or streaming, I still play games but I watch a lot of TV and films, too. I love anything sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and rewatching all my favorite TV shows. How long have you been playing The Sims? Which version is your favorite? why? (if you have played more than Sims 4) I’ve been playing The Sims for around 20 years - am I an old-aged pensioner? Almost. But I do like to think of myself as a Sims Veteran. I started playing The Sims (1) on PS2 then moved to PC. I’ll split my favorite games into two categories: console and PC. My favorite console Sims game is The Urbz. That game is still so amazing and I play it to this day! I stream it from time to time. It was just so different from any other Sims game - the graphics style, the fashion, the world, and oh my god the humor! I played it recently and I forgot how cheeky it was!

My favorite PC Sims game has to be The Sims 2. I still play The Sims 2 as much as I can. To me, no other Sims game can compare. It’s just so heavily storybased and I love it. You simply cannot get bored when you play it. I actually remember the jump from The Sims to The Sims 2 and it was like a completely different game. What made you start playing the game (e.g. what pulled you into the Sims?) I actually remember the first time I picked up The Sims. It was on the PS2. My brother had one but I didn’t and I used to play it while he was out. I was never good at games (I’m still not now) and he played a lot of shooters but I remember he said The Sims. So I was like right ok let’s give this a whirl and I fell in love with it instantly. The Sims on console was amazing because the camera was 360 degrees and you couldn’t do that on The Sims on PC. I actually prefer The Sims on console because the story mode is there and it’s brilliant now! You are well known in the LGBBTQ+ community and are seen as an inspiration to many LGBTQ+ players. What does that feel like? What do you hope that the community learns/gets from your streams? That is actually so lovely so thank you so much. I really don’t consider myself as an inspiration in all honesty but if someone

does feel inspired by me then that’s absolutely wonderful. I’m unapologetically myself and I think people can see that in streams. There’s no beating around the bush with me. I am what I am and that’s that luvs. I do remember a viewer saying in chat once about how they felt confident to come out after being active in my Twitch community and I thought that was the nicest thing ever. You started your stream recently, how has the response been? Do you have any plans to join a Twitch LGBT+ community collab in the future? I started streaming around the end of July/ start of August 2020 and the response

I’ve got is completely overwhelming. I’ve made lovely friends and I do feel that it’s changed my life because all I used to do was work then just chill at home. Now, this is a hobby of mine and something I get excited about. I would absolutely love to join an LGBT+ collab! I’m actually extremely shy when it comes to networking with other streamers. There are SO many creators that I’d love to play a game with. No stream - just purely play a game with but I’m too scared to ask! I actually made my New Year’s resolution to reach out to more creators but it’s halfway through the year and I haven’t made any progress

(yet)! You had to have a kidney transplant (luckily your mom was a match) and started streaming while you recovered from the surgery. What was this experience like for you? Looking back, it was actually a really traumatic experience. I can barely remember the first few days (shoutout to the drugs at the hospital - miss you, angel). It was just a really weird time of my life. I was in recovery for around 6 months which is when I picked up The Sims again properly. I saved some money up while I was off work and bought a gaming laptop, webcam, microphone - all the

streaming gear and really got into the game again. Playing games was a complete coping mechanism for me. I could hardly do anything. I was just on the sofa for weeks and weeks so The Sims and Animal Crossing really kept me going. It was a very strange time in general because while I had my surgery, the pandemic really started to pick up. I was really lucky - I was the last person in my country to have a kidney transplant before they canceled all operations because of the pandemic. Afterward, I was just at home with my fiance and we didn’t see anyone else for months which was a bit hard because I’m very close to my friends and family so going through

major surgery and not having a support network around was strange and hard at times. Shout-out to my fiance for being a legend Aside from the ones we know from your stream, do you have any other games that you enjoy playing? Yes! I love Animal Crossing, Genshin Impact, and Phasmophobia. I LOVE horror games but don’t play them too much. The only reason being is that most of them are shooters and I’m so bad. I play Phasmophobia a few days a week with fellow Simmers, MissSimReno, and Rachel Pedd. We’ve become so close over the last few months. We’re always messaging each other like ‘who is free today please gals?! We need a game of Phasmo’! It’s lush because we make time to play together. Shoutout to those pair for being absolute stunning friends to me. You are known for being straight with people on your social media, you tell it how it is without holding back (which I admire about you) How do you find the community reacts to his honesty? Has it ever caused you trouble? Talking straight is the straightest thing about me and that’s no lie. I don’t think it’s ever caused me trouble from what I can remember! I don’t think I’ve ever gotten into an argument with anyone. I honestly don’t care enough to argue with someone. I just want to eat crisps, drink Fanta Lemon and get on with life. Your Twitch bio says that you are ‘just a gay on a mission’ what is your biggest goal when it comes to your online presence in The Sims community? I forgot this was in my bio and I’m weak thinking about it now. Why am I like this omg? I don’t feel like I have a solid goal in all honesty. All I want to do is create a really fun space for people who enjoy the same games as me. I feel like I’ve done that but of course it would be nice to create an even bigger community! I like to hope that I will reach Twitch Partner one day but we’ll see. In regards to The Sims, it would be

nice to be an EA Game Changer because I just think it would be so fun! I don’t feel like it would ever happen for me because my content is solely on Twitch and I feel like most Game Changers have a big YouTube audience and have content across different platforms. But nevermind, I’m just doing me and I enjoy what I do! The new pack was just announced (Cottage Living) are you excited? Disappointed? Were you expecting this as a theme? Oh my god - I am so excited! This is the smallest thing but I’m really happy the pubs are called pubs and not bars. I actually mentioned this to SimGuruPopcorn recently as they came into my stream and they said that the Team they worked with made sure it was authentic and I love that! I’m really excited to have more animals in the game and the build buy items look awesome from what we’ve seen so far! It’s also nice to see a British-style world in The Sims. I’ve wanted one for a long time so I’m really excited to see what it’ll be like. What are you looking forward to most in the new pack? (E.g. what features do you hope are included?) I did see that the pond tool is coming back. A long time coming but I’m so happy it’s here. I hope our Sims can actually ride the llamas. Who doesn’t want to see Eliza Pancakes riding down Willow Creek on a llama?! You build a lot in your streams, what is your favorite build style? Building has always been my favourite! The styles I usually go for are modern, contemporary or cute cottage vibes. I’m really inspired by clean, Scandinavian interiors and architecture and The Sims 4 has such good items for this type of style. Have you been playing the new Dream Home Decorator? What do you enjoy about this pack? What do you dislike? Yes, I’ve been loving it! The build buy items are literally gorgeous and completely my style. I was actually shocked by how much furniture we did get

and how customisable it is. You can make so many different shapes with the storage. Who needs IKEA?! I was sad to see no windows - I always love new windows. I really feel a few more wall coverings and some floorings would’ve just put the cherry on the top for me with this pack. We all love the Sims to pieces, but there are some major flaws in the game. What do you wish the Sims team would fix first? Let’s pretend that EA had a major server meltdown and your Sims game has been destroyed. When you contact them they tell you it will take some time to fix but they can give you one of each pack to play for now, which do you choose and why? I am taking City Living to the grave with me. I love that pack so much. The world, the apartments, the Townies - I love it! Whenever I start a new let’s play, I always start at San Myshuno. It gives me Neon East vibes from The Urbz - that’s probably why I love it so much. Which is your least favorite pack in this game? My least favourite pack would have to be Get Famous. I’m not super keen on the gameplay aspect of my sim being famous. In my opinion, Del Sol Valley was a completely missed opportunity as a whole. It just so small! As it’s based on a

Californian city, I feel like there should’ve been apartments/condos and glitzy nightclubs. I just want to live my Paris Hilton fantasy. What do you wish that every Sims player knew or what would you tell them if you had the chance? There is a great deal of hate online, but you seem to have a very welcoming community of people over on Twitch. How do you maintain such a positive community? What advice would you give other streamers who want their community to be as welcoming as yours is? Your community is only positive if you are positive and the people you have in it are positive. People do not have to do anything extreme for you to ban them for your channel. It’s a space that you’ve created. If someone isn’t fitting with your vibe and they’re being a certain type of way in your chat then you’re allowed to remove them. It sounds harsh but it’s your community and you’re allowed to set a boundary. What advice would you give someone who is just starting out with streaming or YouTube? Play games that you enjoy. Keep your personality authentic and your audience will find you. It may take time but it’s the only way to do it. I’m still trying to navigate this myself as my community is still small. There can be really happy times, sad times and stressful times, There are days where I feel like I’m going backwards but just push on because there’s an entire audience out there who doesn’t know that you’re their favourite content creator yet.

Follow Rhys On: Twitter: @RhysMoon_ Twitch: Rhys_Moon Instagram: rhysmoon

Your Sims Showcased from around th

Logan and Alex by The Mom Cave

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Pride Poo Chal_Nighl Party by tLioness

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Gilmore by Goddessofwar38

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Most know her because of her talent for creating pets on The Sims 4 gallery, but she is also an amazing builder, and a friendly streamer with a kind soul and welcoming community. We sat down with PugOwnedPlays to talk about her pets, her builds, her journey, and the future of the sims 4.

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When I got Cats and Dogs, I wanted to create my RL dog, Bonnie - an Australian Cattle Dog. The ones available in the game did not look right to me. She was my very first upload to The Sims 4 Gallery.

roofs and think, please God no? Sims roofing is fun! My tip would be to make a box and practice, then practice some more. There are many fantastic tutorials on YT. I would suggest going and watching as many as it takes. You are incredibly talented - both at making pets and at creating realistic builds in the Sims. - Do you research the build styles before

Do you have a favorite pet that you have created? My favorite pet would always be Bonnie. I have painted her many times. As my skills improve, there are always new versions of her popping up in my catalog; otherwise, it's every pet I paint. These pictures are some of my latest. You have talked about how your pets get stolen on the gallery (as many other people have shared that they have had this happen as well). These pets are then re-uploaded with those people claiming them as their own. This must be very frustrating after all the time and effort you put into creating them. How do you handle this? What do you suggest EA do to prevent this from happening? Gallery theft is a tricky one, and I'm unsure what can be done to stop it. I do not mind re-uploads. I don't create for the downloads, likes, or follows. I create to make folks smile. What I don't like is when people take my pets and alter them slightly, then claim them as their own… Heck, some don't even bother changing them! That is awful. Shame on anyone who does this…

creating a specific type of home? Do you have any background in architecture/design? I build primarily from memory, places I've visited and lived. I will sometimes look at photos as a reference then build from there. I have no background in design. Do you have a favorite style of home to build? No, I don't really have a favorite style of home. I like to push myself to keep trying new design styles and such. You recently began using a face-cam in your Twitch Streams, despite sharing how shy you are. Was this difficult? What made you decide to use a cam? And, How did you overcome your fear/ shyness?

Aside from creating stunning pets, you are also a fantastic builder. In fact, you are known as a "Roofing Goddess" in the community! Do you have any tips for those who look at

I have been streaming on Twitch for just over a year. I promised to do a face reveal on my first twitchversary. As the date drew closer, I was in full panic mode; as I mentioned, I am painfully shy and suffer from anxiety. Lucky for me, I have a

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fantastic twitch community and a group of friends who let me know it was okay if I did not want to show myself, which lifted the pressure. With a glass of red wine in hand, I hit go live on May the 13th and revealed myself. I'm still uncomfortable with it, I feel exposed, but I keep pushing, hoping the anxiety will go away. You have a very welcoming community. Everyone is always friendly and respectful in your streams. How do you ensure that your community stays so inclusive? Do you have advice for others who may wish their community was as welcoming as yours? My Twitch community is amazing. I know everyone says that, but I truly feel mine is pretty unique. I am lucky that people who are my friends mod for me. They are fiercely protective of me and the community that has grown around me. The community is wonderful. Most folks have been there since day one. I have watched friendships grow, and that warms my heart. I keep telling the community and my mods that my channel is what

I do play the game. My gameplay is very basic. It is always my Sim self with a house full of pets and auto-age turned off. I've considered doing gameplay on stream but honestly? I would truly suck at it. What is your favorite aspect of The Sims 4? What is your least favorite part? My favorite is creating. Be it building or painting pets. My least favorite thing is that there are not enough assets to build with. The latest game pack, Dream Home Decorator was released this month. What are your thoughts on this new pack? Dream decorator surprised me, I thought I would not like it, but here I am LOVING it! I love the build buy and the gameplay (Whoever would have thought!) Imagine that EA's servers have suffered a major meltdown, and your game has been seriously damaged. It will take time to fix, but EA tells you that you can have one of each pack type for the moment along with the base game, {E.g., Expansion, Game, Stuff, and Kit.} What would your game look like? Cats & Dogs - Strangerville - Paranormal We all love The Sims 4, but there are things that the game is lacking. What do you wish that The Sims 4 had that it does not have currently?

it is because of them, not me. They welcome everyone; they keep the conversation going, and when needed, they call people out. To others, I would say trust in your community to have your back and each others. You tend to do Twitch more than YouTube. Why is this? I have autoimmune diseases, which means I have limited energy. At the moment, Twitch takes what I have left at the end of the day. Hopefully, when things get better, I will get back to creating content for YT. What advice would you give someone who was thinking of starting their own stream? Be yourself, and be authentic because that is truly unique, and that is what people look for I think. You build a lot on stream, but do you ever just play the game? If so, what does your gameplay look like? Would you do a let's play on your channel?

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Honestly… I'm happy with the Sims 4. The game is almost 7 years old, and sure, I would like to change or add lots, but as a game, I don't think it really lacks anything. Everyone is talking about the upcoming expansion pack, and many are guessing that it will be farming. What are your thoughts? What do you think will come next for The Sims 4? Farming! My thoughts? CHICKENS, Llamas, and cows… What's not to love!

There has been a great deal of talk about The Sims 5 in the last few months. How do you feel about the potential for a new Sims game? Will you buy it right away or wait to see what others say about it? I am super excited for Sims 5. I will buy it the moment it is released. I am so curious as to the direction they take it. You use the T.O.O.L Mod a lot in your builds and have come up with some great uses for this fantastic mod. Can you provide any advice or tips on using T.O.O.L in The Sims 4? I love T.O.O.L. I use it lightly, position something perfectly, downsize, create functioning franken'furniture… My advice would be to watch Twisted Mexi's tutorial. It is time-stamped, short, and takes you from beginner thru to expert What can we expect from you in the coming months? Any exciting plans in the works? I have only been building for 2 and a half years, so there's plenty of room for improvement. Hopefully, you will see better builds, and I do have a very dear to my heart world save coming up in the near future - so keep your eyes peeled for that!

Be sure to check out PugOwnedPlays on: Twitter: https://twitter.com/PugownedS Twitch :https://www.twitch.tv/pugowned YouTube: youtube.com/c/PugOwnedPlaystheSims

(Latest) Lesbian Pride Flag The original was a red kiss superimposed on six shades of red and pink colors and a white bar in the center was introduced in a weblog in 2010. It was modified by removing the kiss. In a 2018 article on Medium, an author proposed this flag as “A Lesbian Flag for Everyone”. The flag seen here, has been voted on by approx. 5000 people as a possibility for a new lesbian flag.

Building a The Mom C I don’t know about you, but I get serious anxiety whenever I have to travel somewhere unfamiliar. Even worse when I am the one navigating alone. It is fine when I know where I am going, or when I am familiar with the route. However, put a trip in front of me where I need a GPS and I have to do some serious self-talk and a lot of deep breathing and work through my anxiety.

We feel fear, anger, and emotions that seem to not hold a description or name. Well-meaning people reach out, but they cannot help us navigate this frightening, dark terrifying terrain. They have never been there before. And neither have you.

Imagine traveling along and suddenly you find yourself lost in an unfamiliar place. Then, you realize you do not have GPS, a map, directions or even a soul who can direct you. And then imagine that the vehicle you are traveling completely breaks down and now you are even more alone. Add to that this place you are in is dark, cold and there is no visible exit, anywhere. Imagine it being like a dark frightening tunnel. The only thing you know is that you are there. You do not know how or why, you just are. This is what grief can often feel like. We are sailing along in life and suddenly, in an instant, everything changes. The world we know and are familiar with changes. The usual sights, smells, sounds, tastes and sensations can change. We go to reach for something, or someone and it is no longer there. And so, we become very aware there is a huge void. We discover we are in very unfamiliar territory.

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No one has. It feels different and uncertain because it is. When we think about grief, we often hear about the stages, or phases. Wouldn’t it be great if grief were simple enough to go through a stage and check the box? Unfortunately, that is not how grief works. Grief is a developmental process in the human experience. What I mean by that is, grief changes who we are forever. It breaks down what we know and forces us to rebuild something, anything, just to survive. Stages are not a box we check,

Better Life with Cave

GRIEF | A TUTORIAL: PART 1 GETTING LOCATED

they move forward, backward, sideways and at times every direction all at once.

What can feel the most difficult is trying to navigate these everchanging feelings and figuring out exactly what it is we need in those moments.

experience a loss, whether it be the loss of a person, a relationship, a job or even a season (for example graduating or becoming an Empty-Nester) we experience grief. The intensity will vary depending on how much of our “normal” changes with the loss. How much of your ever-day experience is now different after experiencing this change? The every-day mundane things can feel like sudden voids unexpectedly. This is normal and is ok to feel. In fact, there is no “wrong” way to grieve.

When working with clients in grief, the first thing we do is figure out their “location.” It is kind of like when you look at a map and try to pin where you are so that you can decide how to move from there. Getting located is about sitting with the pain long enough that it begins to inform you about what you might need in that moment. Here are a few things that can help us “locate” ourselves during the unfamiliar terrain of grief:

Grieving Involves Many Emotions: When we are adjusting to a loss, we can go from feeling everything to nothing to everything again without notice. One moment we might feel angry and the next sad. We may go through periods of numbness and even surprise ourselves because we laughed. We can feel guilty and have “if-only” moments. Whatever you are feeling, it is valid. What is important is to find a way to express the feelings. This can be done through journaling, drawing or talking to someone. Allowing tears, laughter, anger, whatever you are feeling is how the emotions will have time to do their work.

Normalize The Experience: If you hear nothing else from me in this article hear this, you are not “crazy” or “defective” (two things I often hear from grieving clients). Nor are you weak. I like to remind people that you are strong because of who you are and you grieve because you are human. Grief is a human response to loss. When we

Do A Body Scan: Grief isn’t just a passive sadness, it is a whole-existence experience. Our brains change when we grieve, as does our body chemistry. You might experience a change in your senses, such as smell or touch. Sleep can be disrupted, appetite affected, and an overall feeling of anxiety can be experienced. Taking time to simply sit

However, if we think about grief as a wound, then we can think about grief as need something different during each differing experience..

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and “listen” to yourself is important. Start at the top of your head and slowly work your way through your body. Notice what is tense, what hurts, how you are breathing and what feelings you can identify. Taking some slow calm breaths can make a big difference. Taking a warm bath or shower, petting your dog or cat, drinking chamomile, lavender or ginger tea, aromatherapy or even simply taking some moments to sit outside and allow yourself to be silent can all be ways to help your body feel less tense and calmer.

Get Support: The best thing you can do for yourself when you are grieving is to get support. Find a person you trust, a counselor or a group. Sometimes it can feel hard to admit that we need support, especially when we are used to being the “strong” ones. Best if you can find help from those who have a knowledge of grief and can help guide you

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with the right resources at the right time.

Give Yourself Permission:

Grief takes a lot of emotional energy. The pools of energy once used for other things, like relationships, work or hobbies is now being rerouted to your grief. You may feel like you don’t have the energy to do the things you once did. You may notice that being around people is more exhausting than it used to be. You might find that you really would rather not go to that party or watch that movie. You may feel that you “have” to because you don’t want to disappoint people. But, it’s OK. The only person you have to worry about is you! It’s ok to cancel plans. It’s ok to say no. In fact, it’s necessary. Your emotional reserves are likely depleted. They’ll come back, but right now you

need them for you. That doesn’t mean you’re selfish. It means you are healing.

Practice Gratitude:

Finally, if you can find even small things in your life to be thankful for, it can go a long way. One exercise I would have clients try is to write down one thing at the end of the day that they are grateful for, just one. Usually, they can find more. Gratitude does not take away grief. It does not fill the loss. However, it can help us feel glimmers of hope and cracks of light in the dark places we can find ourselves.

Here are some helpful resources: If you find yourself in the unfamiliar territory of loss, I wish you peace, I wish you hope and I wish you light.

grief.com/

If you want to ask me a question, you can email me at tmc.simmedup@gmail.com

hospicefoundation.org/Grief-(1)/ Support-Groups

www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/ grief

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The SimmedUp Shop is brought to you through SupInMedia All proceeds from sales is used to promote, create and arrange giveaways through our magazine, website and social media channels. So your support means the world to us and to our readers. Our hope is that one day we will be able to support our gaming community more than just with words and prizes. If you wish to DONATE to our magazine to help keep us going then please do donate through our website, because every little really does help. Thank you for all your continued support *All designs are created by our team and are exclusive to SimmedUp and SupInMedia if you see our designs anywhere else please do let us know.

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Sims 4 Dream Home Decorator, the 10th game pack for the popular franchise, has been out for just over a month now. Released May 17th, Dream Home Decorator adds some exci�ng features to the game and gives your Sims some serious freedom in their career. We look at all the features this pack offers and outline how to succeed.

In The Sims 4 Dream Home Decorator, your Sims set out on a journey to restore their world, one renovation at a time. With a new active career like no other before, more control over your workday, and a plethora of stunning new furniture, Dream Home Decorator has quickly become one of the most loved Sims packs of all time. Builders and players alike praise the team's innovation in this pack's creation, and more people are spending time ingame than ever before.

may be left feeling confused – "What the heck is Cosmolux Decor, anyway?" – Thankfully, we have a few helpful tips for a successful renovation.

7 Steps To A Great Reno: 1. Get to know the client: The best thing that you can do to help your Sims succeed in their new career is to

The builder-oriented perspective on game play has reignited the spark that the game once held for many players and helps others learn trade tools. The active Interior Designer career has been created in a new and innovative way that gives players more control over their gameplay – and we love it! Still, those who are not builders at heart and have no experience with interior decor

socialize with the clients. The Sims 4 Dream Home Decorator came with several new social interactions that will help your Sims complete their tasks successfully. As well as being able to ask about the client's preferred decor style, your Sims can ask about their favorite colors,

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hobbies, and likes and dislikes (an update that was added to the game along with the release pack). Taking time to get to know your client will give you a better idea of what they are looking for from a renovation. This is helpful as instructions from the client can often be vague or unrelated to design. Along with aiding in your renovation, getting to know your clients means that your Sim will form relationships with the people around town and form friendships with them over time. This can come in handy for storytelling and game progression down the line. 2. Don't Forget Before Pictures: One aspect of every gig you have will be taking before pictures of the space you will renovate. “Before” images allow you to reveal drastic changes to your clients in an artistic way. These pictures also help with the overall reception of your renovation and are fun to look back on later as your skills improve.

a bright, cozy room that your clients will (hopefully) love. If you forget to take pictures before beginning your renovation, it can impact your success on the gig. With that said, I have found that taking pictures of almost anything will affect the clients in much the same way. So, do not panic if you forget this step of the process. Instead, take pictures of a bare wall or simply undo what you have done by pressing ctrl + z or using the undo feature in the game, then you can use ctrl + Y or redo to shift it back to the masterpiece you have just created.

As much as it seems like the before and after photos are a vital aspect of the renovation, forgetting to complete them does not lead to instant failure. Interior decorators need to be ready to adapt to anything, so look around, listen to the client, and get creative! 3. Use the System to beat the System : One thing that I have noticed with Dream Home Decorator is that the information clients offer often seems to be extremely unhelpful at first glance. For example, when being hired to do a kitchen renovation your clients may announce their love of painting and rocket science, or their dislike of dancing. While this may this may be frustrating, it can actually be very useful. If you click the like/dislike in the gig panel, it will bring up every item that the game recognizes as fitting that category. Bam, you now have a starting point.

Before and after images are meant to measure your success on the job. They allow you to show how a once dark and dreary space has been transformed into

If you are planning to renovate the client’s bathroom and all they tell you is that they dislike orange, dislike piano, and like video gaming, then you may feel slightly defeated. In this case, you should avoid orange. Short of choosing a different room to renovate, utilize what you are told and use it to fill in the gaps.

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Take for instance your clients announcement that they do not like orange. You simply need to avoid the color orange you would want to choose any other color than orange. This is where the new interactions come in handy. Under friendly interactions, you can inquire about the Sims favorite color. If you are lucky, you may get something

garden in the living room or a pool in the kitchen. Fit the client's requests into the space by Including as many of the things you know as possible. If the client claims to love green, use as much of that color as possible in various shades. I have learned that if you follow the information literally then they tend to like the result, even if it looks ridiculous.

It is understandable, I mean have you seen how the townies dress? 4. When in doubt, stick to the common spaces: When information is especially scarce and you are truly stuck for what to do, it may be best to stick to the common spaces. Areas like the living room, kitchen, and dining room provide a flexible space that allows you to work in differing interests. These spaces also make it easier to please a large group of Sims, such as the Spencer-Lewis family, with conflicting tastes and interests. It can be hard to please everyone if you are renovating the master suite but it is much easier to please most of them if you are recreating the living room or kitchen. When in doubt keep renovations to the common areas of the house (living, dining, kitchen, etc.) for everyone to enjoy. that you can use in your design. It is also a good idea to try to incorporate their likes into the space. Pictures, statues, clutter, and other decorations are a great way to add interest to a room and tie in objects that would not normally work in a space. You can hang a video game-related painting in a bathroom or place a violin to a walk-in closet if it fits your client's desires and helps you meet their requests – After all, you make the rules, and nothing says you cannot have a

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Remember, knowing that a Sim likes violin may not be helpful to a bathroom renovation, but it could be a fantastic tidbit of info for a living room or music space. It is best to avoid deciding on which space you will renovate until after you have gotten to know the client to avoid disappointment (See Tip 1). 5. Pick Your Gigs Carefully: It is super tempting to seek out the highest paying gig that is available and jump in feet first but this plan can quickly

backfire. The gig panel does not provide a lot of information. It gives you a rundown of they type of renovation that is expected, the budget, the pay, and the client name but little else. Just because you have been promoted and can choose a level renovation does not mean that you should. When you first begin the interior decorator career you have few choices but as you progress more renovation opportunities become available. Take time to think about each gig before you select one. There are numerous bugs in the game, so that level renovation may not go well if you cannot create walls, and the room reno may be limited to a specific floor. Room additions often come with am unreasonable tile limit as well, so beware.

The better that you know your client, the better the chance of a successful renovation. Do not assume that you can guess what they want by looking at what they currently have in their space. Instead, talk to them, and utilize the new interactions that are available. There will be a time when you inevitably fail at least once. While losing time and money may be a hard pill to swallow, it will provide a valuable lesson moving forward. If you take time to get to know your client and listen closely to what they want, you can succeed in this career. Remember to think like a Sim and work

6. Inspect objects for inspiration: If you find that your clients are not giving you much to go on, look around their current homes for inspiration. Dream Home Decorator came with a new 'inspect object' interaction. This new interaction can give you some information about your client and may provide you with hints that will be helpful to your design plan. If everything in your client's house is modern and they have not outlined a specific decor preference, they may not like the Victorian-style sofa you planned to use (although this is not always true). Utilize the 'inspect item' interaction to help your Sim when you are stuck for ideas on what to do in a space and the client is not able to provide guidance. 7. Build relationships with clients: I cannot stress enough the importance of listening to the client and building a relationship.

the clients’ likes and dislikes into your design vision.

Good Luck! K8Simsley

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With Minraed For this issue we will be heading down to to the local pride parade to celebrate with our friends and learn a bit about crowd control when photographing parties and events. I am going to be using T.O.O.L mod by Twisted Mexi for this tutorial. I will explain how I use T.O.O.L for photos, but the basics of how to use the mod will not be fully explained here. You can find everything you need to know over at https://twistedmexi.com/ We have a typical party scene where your Sims just do whatever they want. Trying to get them in position is like herding cattle; they never stay still long enough..

T.O.O.L mod and Pose Player to the rescue find pose player here getsims4studio.com/thread/2617/andrews-studio Step 1 Strike A Pose

Step 2 shft + left click to open the T.O.O.L menu

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Step 3 Toggle Active Object the selected sim will turn green. Once you move the sim you can use Elevate or Rotate to position them.

Any Sim that is in a pose or not in an active animation state can be moved just as if it was any object being manipulated by T.O.O.L. Step 4 Don’t Walk Away! Our Sims are always off wandering when we need them to stay put. Pose player is a great crowd controller. Set your sims into any pose to hold them still while you work on the others.

Using every day action poses like sitting at a table, or standing chatting, or walking hand in hand along with the pose player and T.O.O.L is a great way to set up extras in your scene. It could be used here to set up a background crowd of Sims while you photograph the stars of the show.

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CANADIAN PRIDE “This is my moment to take exactly who I am and what I was born into, what I’ve become, and all of the growing pains I went through in life and turn it into an artform.”

Priyanka Canada’s Drag Race alumni Winner

1st Drag Queen ever to be featured on the cover of Elle Magazine Lot: ! Pride Parade ! By thegrimcookies Once you are done with your photos you can move the rearranged sims to an open and accessible space again. This is easy enough to do with the T.O.O.L. Mod features, or by using “teleport here” in live mode with cheats turned on. The quickest way to get them back to a playable state is to hit shft + left click again and use “reset object”.

I won’t lie, this can be a very tedious process, but when you have a vision and you just won’t be happy until you can capture that image as you have imagined it then the fuss will be worth it.

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I’d like to give a special shout out to THE real Lea Morgana for allowing me to use her as a feature in this little event. You can find the no-cc version of Lea in my gallery. ID Minraed You can also find Lea Morgana on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/leamorgana I hope you have learned something new that will be helpful for your photos and stories. Share your party photos with us. Tag #SUPsimtography and #simmedupmag You can find me on Simstagram @minraed and on Twitter as @MinraedArzhel More photos and credits for the Sims that were party guests on my blog www.simaginarium.com

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Making a Simm Interview by SulziSim

She is known for spooky vibes and just being out there. This month I sat own with CarissaSims to talk anout her Sims nolstalga and being part of the LGBTQ+ community.

that I hope get patched before the next pack comes, but overall I really am enjoying the new job and the build items that came with this pack. They did a great job of being able to bring together both play styles.

Sulzi: What is your favorite Sims nostalgia Cottage Living looks so amazing and is moment? Anything that stands out? basically my dream pack! I cannot wait to Carissa: My favorite nostalgia moment was create lesbian cottage-core couples that being 10 years old and playing The Sims 2 with have a farm and adopt tons of adorable my best friend every time we had a toddlers and children. The items and the sleepover. We would create a family and aesthetic of the pack looks incredible. As cause drama and scandals while laughing until a builder, I always look at items first and I late at night. I loved the picture/story feature am excited to see what the new expansion and would use it to write my own scripts for has to offer. my sims stories. Sims 2 will always have a Sulzi: What is your favorite part of the special place in my heart. Sims franchise? Sulzi: What are your thoughts about the new Game Pack that came out and the Carissa: My favorite part of the Sims Expansion Pack that will be coming out Franchise is the community it has created. I have met some of my best friends since soon? becoming a streamer/youtuber and its all Carissa: The Dream Home Decorator pack thanks to the sims. Everyone is so that came out in June is so much fun! I get to wonderful and unique in the sims building and do game play. It has some bugs community. I love the diversity of the players and how we can all come together

mer: CarissaSims

and share experiences and our mutual love interpretations of characters for the sims. and it’s fun to make mine. I think I might attempt to Sulzi: What is your favorite thing to do in make the singer YUNGBLUD the Sims? Gameplay, Building? Or a bit next as he is a recent of both? obsession of mine. Carissa: It’s a bit of both. I really enjoy building. I’m a minimalist, but in Sims I have a lot of fun cluttering up buildings and making them feel “homey.” On the other hand, gameplay is really fun too, Sims chaos is what I live for. I can never resist walling my sims into the pool just to get a visit from Grim. Sulzi: You have also made some celebs as sims. Tell us more about some of them and who you plan on doing next. Carissa: The Sims celebrities that I make are usually my favorite book characters, but I also take suggestions from my community. I enjoy making book characters because I can make the characters as described in the book and who they become to me as I read about them. Everyone has different

Sulzi: This month we are honouring and featuring the L G B T Q + community. Do you have a n y advice to o t h e r players about their identity and how they can showcase that with the Sims. Carissa: As a pansexual woman, I really appreciate the ability for sims to be

with someone of any gender as it makes me feel represented in a video game for once. I like to showcase my pride by having sims couples who are always of different genders and gender identities. Being queer is such an important part of my identiy and I want to make sure my streams and videos reflect that well. I also aspire to normalize queer relationships by having them in almost all of my gameplay that I do live/in

videos. I want everyone to see that queer relationships are no different than any other and they shouldn't be seen as weird or unnatural. Sulzi: Any other advice you would like to give the readers in terms of growing their community? When growing an online community I always

say the best thing to do is find those who have the same interests as you and become friends with them but only because you truly want to support them! I have met so many amazing streamer/ youtuber friends since I began this journey and I feel so lucky to have so many amazing friends that live around the whole world.

It's also important to communicate with your community well on any changes. If you are too tired to stream then its best to give a few hours notice on every possible social media platform. I have twitter, discord, snapchat, and facebook to ensure I can reach as many people as possible. I have the most supportive community and I love each and every one of them more than I can ever explain.

Follow Car social media

rissa on all a platforms!

Showcase By The Simming Spoonie

a communal bedroom area for the other 3 Sims. Before we delve any deeper, can we just take a moment to appreciate that glorious stone pathway and her amazing landscaping skills! The play area is amazing and also contains the only non-base game item in the whole of the build, Lissy is a very accomplished builder who showcases her work on Facebook. She also shares some of her wonderful builds and rooms via speed builds on YouTube. She seems to favour more traditional builds, but does have that doesn’t mean her repertoire doesn’t include some more modern styles. She also does room and build requests! All her builds are CC and mod free, I have chosen a couple of my favourite builds and rooms of hers to showcase here. First up we have a Holiday Cabin. This stunning lot makes an ideal Rental property for four Sims and includes a play area, pond, swimming hole, a communal eating and living area, one single room and

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the swing from Seasons. Here’s the communal kitchen small, but perfectly formed with some incredibly wellchosen and placed clutter. This communal bedroom brings back memories from Brownie camp! Functional yet basic furniture and zero privacy! The use of platforms is a genius move in here. Let’s move onto something a bit different next, her Cypress Terrace Tiny Home Community, another Base Game only build, Each of the five buildings here is its own selfcontained Tiny Home and it’s so cute it’s Lissy doesn’t just stick to full lots though, she also makes single rooms, my favourite of almost painful LOL!. which is probably one of her newest, Student She has certainly flexed her landscaping Study Area. skills again with this build. You can find Lissy sharing her builds in And the insides of these cosy cottages numerous Facebook groups, and on her have definitely had the same care and YouTube channel, Instagram and Twitter, all attention placed on them. under LissyBuilds. Her gallery ID is SimLissy1.

PimpMySims4 LGBTQ Mod Mod Review by SueSimming

The LGBT mod adds LGBTQ+ gameplay to your game to create a more in-depth experience for your Sims. It also adds lot traits, events, and holiday traditions. The creator of this mod PimpMySims4 regularly improves and updates this mod so head over to the Patreon page to keep the mod updated. https://www.patreon.com/posts/ pimpmysims4-lgbt-50606800

Traits When you add any of the LGBT sexuality/ gender traits to a Sim, they will now automatically also receive an In The Closet trait. If you include the optional homophobia file, this will prevent homophobic/ transphobic Sims from being uncomfortable around Sims that haven't come out yet.- Ally - Aromantic - Asexual

- Bisexual - Demisexual - Gay - Gender Fluid - Lesbian - LGBT Activist - Non Binary - Pansexual - Transgender - Drag Queen/King - Questioning

Interactions

LGBT interactions can be found under the What I like about this mod is that when your LGBT Mod menu when you click on another Sim is coming out to another Sim, the flag Sim. will appear in a speech bubble and it’s these little details that make this mod a must have. Clearly a lot of thought went

"Ask About Sexuality/Identity" "Ask About Pronouns" "Get Excited About Pride"

into this mod.

"Encourage to Come Out"

Social Events

"Come out as..."

LGBT Meetup

And many more.

This event allows you to invite any Sims with Depending on your relationship with the other a LGBT trait to hang out. It is a free event Sim and/or their traits, these interactions and there are no rewards, it is just a great could have different results. Some interactions way to meet Sims in the community. will give your Sim and/or the other Sim positive or negative buffs/moodlets! Each trait has Coming Out Party exclusive social interactions as well, some may This is a goaled event. You can come out to only appear after talking to Sims for a certain your friends can family in a festive period of time. environment. You can earn money as a reward upon completion. LGBT Charity Gala This is a goaled event. Host a gala to help raise money for a LGBT charity. If you get gold on this event, you will receive a new gameplay trait, LGBT Activist, which gives you two new interactions: "Talk about Protesting for LGBT Rights" and "Ask to Join

Cause" which has a chance of turning This aspiration is for Sims who wish to advocate other Sims into LGBT Activists as well. for LGBT rights around the community. This aspiration does require you to have City Living LGBT Protest and Get Famous in order to complete the goals. This is not a goaled event. You need City Living in order for this event to work. You simply invite other Sims to a lot and start a protest. You may have to click on Sims and select "ask to join protest" under friendly > political career to get the protest started. Drag Show This is a goaled event where you can win money and also the Drag Queen/King trait. The goals are mostly performance based, so it gives you the freedom to run the show how you'd like.

Lot Traits

Optional Files The Homophobia file is automatically included in the zip folder. If you do not want any Sims to experience homophobia or transphobia, just delete the file. These traits were created for story telling purposes only, as some people like their game to reflect reality or wish to defeat homophobia in game. The LGBT Protest Signs Override file is also optional. This will replace all protest signs with Simlish signs protesting for LGBT rights. If you do not wish to replace them all, delete this file.

Known Issues

Some people have reported an LE when lesbian Sims woohoo, PimpMySims4 has tried to fix this The LGBT hot spot spawns LGBT Sims in but it keeps coming back. It is not game breaking, so you can just ignore it until a fix can your world to that lot be found. Gay Hot Spot For those using Wicked Whims, I found a small The gay hot spot spawn’s gay Sims in issue where you’ll pick a trait for your Sim like your world to that lot. lesbian using this mod but WW assign a different sexual preference and then your two lesbian Lesbian Hot Spot Sims can’t get it on. This is easily fixed with a The lesbian hot spot spawn’s lesbian Sims WW cheat where you can assign the sexual preference. in your world to that lot. LGBT Hot Spot

Note that with all three hot spot traits, Additional Credits: In Game Icons the mod does not assign traits to Sims, AquamarineGem you have to assign LGBT, gay or lesbian traits for this to work properly. Summer & Sim by divanthesimmer

Holiday Traditions Pride Spirit This holiday tradition is completed by using LGBT interactions with other Sims, so you can make your own pride holiday.

Aspirations LGBT Activist

Aquarius - Be aware of what you are doing and when

you do these things, because those around you are watching your every move at the moment. Why? You know deep down what you have been doing but yet are not willing to change? Be a butterfly and grow to your potential for the greater good.

A r i e s - This month is going to be very exciting for you

so much so it will at times feel like an emotional roller-coaster, but in a good way! Ride each wave with a smile, enjoy every second of whats to come and share the success with those around you, after all whats a party for one?

Gemini - You are holding onto too many plates at the moment, you are not a juggler of any profession, so just

put them down right now. Step back and look at what you have in front of you and then pick ONE plate to hold, deal with this and move onto the next, it is the only way forward.

L e o - Sometimes it is OK to let go of the past and allow

yourself time to heal that ‘’Ouch’. It may feel like holding onto the pain serves you in some way and that the anger is what drives you forward, but alas it is not. YOU are your own driving force and in letting go, you truly move forward.

L i b ra - You feel you are frozen, stuck in time with

no way out, BE BRAVE because things are about to change, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, you just need to keep moving forward and then and only then will you reach the goal you are working towards.

Sagittarius - For the month of July you need to

follow your dreams. As much as you can build those barriers before you and say ‘i cannot’ there are a million ways ‘you can’. Don’t give up someone is coming to guide your way.

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Pisces - The weather has been good, the sky very blue,

but yet your still intent on watering your own garden. Share the good stuff with those around you and revel in how welcoming just being nice can be. But don’t be taken for granted, you know the difference.

Taurus - You have all the good intentions in the world, and that's not a bad thing, but now what you need to do is back them up. Write down your ideas, and look back in on them every so often, then and only then will you come across the idea that is going to change your life for the better.

Cancer - Time to clean house Cancer. In doing so you will feel refreshed and rejuvenated and this is not just for your home, this is also for your mind. Your happiness needs no extra baggage right now, so go ahead and brush those cobwebs away.

Virgo - You seem to be awake at night thinking, wondering, and whiling away the hours over times long ago. This is not the end of a story but the beginning of a new one. Each day brings us the chance to be whomever we wish to be, and this month everyday is yours. Seize them with both hands and finally get a good nights rest.

Scorpio - Yes your heart has been broken, it may not seem like a big deal to many but to you it really does hurt. Even the little things sometimes are just too much for how delicate you really can be inside. Protect your heart, things will get better, you truly are a diamond believe this when we tell you because good things are coming. Capricorn - Just because things have changed and feel like they are falling apart doesn't mean they are. Change is good for everyone, it helps us learn new and fantastic ways in which to enrich our future. Think of this change as an adventure and you find things heal much more quickly.

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What can’t talk but will reply when spoken to?

What can’t be put in a saucepan?

What has a thumb and four fingers, but is not a hand?

Bisexual Pride Friendship Proud WorldWide Couples Pansexual Rainbow Kiss Love Life Gay Community Openess Trust Lesbian Hugs Family Transgender Coming Out Fun

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Meet Yolimi I'm Yolanda from Spain (but you can call me Yolimi), I have played the Sims since TS1 on my playstation. I mostly play in CAS, because I love creating diverse Sims, I also enjoy furnishing and decorating builds

Geelfrob / See you soon

Toochse / touch Balinda macoy / Hello, cutie/Nice chick

GUESS THE CAS

Created By Yolimi

LAST MONTHS ANSWERS: Can be found by visiting our website and clicking on the ‘Just for Fun’ Page.

Send Your Answers to: Simmedup@gmail.com & You could See your Name or Social media HERE!

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Here we will be advertising your challenges, competitions, premieres and streams. If you would like to have yours added, let us know by contacting: SimmedUp@gmail.com With ‘Whats On’ in the subject bar.

https://www.instagram.com/thatsimsgirlroom

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Gallery ID: Squidling92 Lot Name: UTPB July Shell Make sure to tag your shell with #utpbshell OR #utpb so we can find it for our Monthly Showcase

https://www.instagram.com/amalieesims

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GenderfluidPride PrideFlag Flag Genderfluid Poolecreated createdthis this JJJJPoole flaginin2012. 2012.ItIthas hasfive five flag horizontalstripes: stripes: pink pink horizontal for forfemininity, femininity, blue bluefor for masculinity, masculinity, purple purple for for both bothmasculinity masculinity and and femininity, femininity,black blackfor forthe the lack lackof ofgender, gender,and and white whitefor forall allgenders. genders.

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SimmedUp Magazine Issue 11

Articles inside

SIMSCOPES

MOD REVIEW

FACEBOOK SHOWCASE

SIMTOGRAPHY

MAKING A SIMMER

SIMSPIRATION

YOUR SIMS

BUILD A BETTER LIFE

RHYSMOON

RETRO CORNER

CC How To Tutorial

OFF TOPIC

MACHINIMALIFE

NONBOB NEWS

THE ENGLISH SIMMER

TIPS & TRICKS

TITAN ARCHITECTS

COOKING SIMS STYLE